1. Akiyo Noguchi 44 JPN - Kokoro Fujii 33 JPN 2. Miho Nonaka 33 JPN - Sean McColl 23:2 CAN 3. Stasa Gejo SRB 13 - Alexey Rubtsov 23:5 RUS Complete results (In order to simplify, 8a presents the results as points and if needed the number of attempts.) Japan was ahead in Chongqing and that counts especially among the female where Akiyo Noguchi and Miho Nonaka were superior also in the semifinal. Kokoro Fujii was last one into the final and won in a kind of boring final with one problem too hard and one too easy. It must be mentioned that #1 and #2 in the female WC in 2017, Janja Garnbret and Shauna Coxey, as well as #1 among the male, Jongwon Chon did choose to not participate. Chon will be back next weekend in Tai'an. In the Speed, Mickael Mawem was best among the top boulder guys with 6.81. Kokoro Fujii was fourth with 7.83 as his best in the qually just some 90 min before he started the boulder final. It should be noted that Sean McColl who has been doing Speed events for several years had more than ten boulder specialists in front of him. Among the female, only a handful boulder specialist participated and Akiyo Noguchi was best of the top boulderers with 12.43.

1. Jernej Kruder SLO 227 - Miho Nonaka JPN 260 2. Tomoa Narasaki JPN 211 - Akiyo Noguchi JPN 230 3. Alexey Rubtsov RUS 181 - Janja Garnbret SLO 180 4. Kokoro Fujii JPN 145 - Fanny Gibert FRA 148 5. Jakob Schubert AUT 115 - Jessica Pilz AUT 118 In the Complete results, IFSC have only counted the two best results. It should also be noted that Janja Garnbret will not do the whole WC in 2018. In comparison to 2017, Jessica Pilz is the only new name in the top, beside Jernej Kruder who was #8 last year. Among the Top-20, nine male are from Japan.

99: Peter Ivanov BUL - Urska Repusic SLO 01: Davide Colombo ITA - Sandra Lettner AUT 03: Eliot Barnabe FRA - Naile MeignanFRA Complete results

Choong Katherine, #2 in the 8a ranking game, has been an active competition climber since 2006 and actually she had her best year in 2017 being four times Top-16 in Lead. One reason for this was that she finished law school in 2016 and then did a four months trip to Spain and France. "After this last trip, I was in a very good shape. I realized that I really need rock climbing to be strong for the competitions. Training is very personal but for me rock climbing give me lot of endurance but more important confident and motivation. I decided to take one year off from February 2018 just for climbing. My main goals are the lead WCs but I also have some projects outside. I’m currently working on Era Vella since a little bit more than a week and I fell last weekend a few meters under the chains. I hope to finish the route until Sunday the 6th May but right now after the rain the conditions are not really good. Anyway I will try my best :) Then there is some others hard routes I really want to climb in Switzerland for example in Gimmelwald or Rawyl. I also want to do more multi pitch routes, why not try a hard multipitch route this year if I have time? But I need for sure to get more experience, I’m still a beginner."

Qualifying results: Ten male Japaneses in Top-25 and seven made it to the semifinal. Gabri Moroni and Keita Watabe were the only big names that did not make it through. Nathan Philips who has been around #30 in the two first WCs in 2018, won the qually with five straight flashes! Two Speed celebs did try Boulder scoring one respectively zero zones. Time schedule Saturday GMT+8 09:30-11:45 Bouldering Semi-Finals (LIVE) 12:00-14:00 Speed Qualification 14:30-15:30 Speed Finals (LIVE) 16:45-20:00 Bouldering Finals (LIVE)

Hily Manon reports on Insta that she has done the 50 meter endurance master piece Era Vella in just four days. Previously she had done a couple of 8c' and one month ago she was #2 in the France Bouldering Championships. Last year she was #11 in one Boulder World Cup. "I trained for boulders comp last year and this year to but I have no time to do the Boulder WC in 2018. I will do the french lead nationals in two weeks and I hope to do make the selection for the World Cup. I have always had good endurance and now I have more strength so I thought, why not try something harder? Margalef is 100 % my style so I choose this route because of the beauty and the compatibility with me! The three difficulties are all my style; resistance, boulder sections and open hand in pockets. About the grade I do not know, I have done some 8c's but I can say it was not so much harder for me personally. I am just 154 cm and with my little fingers what seems 8b for me in Margalef can be graded 8c here. I have no idea of the 8c+/9a difficulty and what is my level today. Grades are delicate because of climbing difference between everyone." Chris Sharma put it up in 2010 and it quickly became the most repeated 9a in the world and in 8a data base, everyone has given it three stars. It has previously been done 30 times out of which five female ascents. Some of the latest repeaters have called it 8c+ and this is also the grade in the latest updated topo.

Sylwia Buczek has done her second 8c in Frankenjura, Intercooler which she started to work on last summer. (c) Hannes Kutza " I climbed the line on 29 April very early in the morning, it was a good weather and I had a very positive mindset, I just wanted to climb the best as I can. Also I was motivated by the fact that the next day is my birthday. I climbed the line in my first go. Climbing on the limit is that what I like and it was always extremely motivating for me. So very likely I will search for next hard project :) I would really like to check how hard would be the next grade for me, I'm very curious so probably I will check something around 8c+."

Cathy Wagner has done The human pad in Monistrol d'Allier which actually is the third 8a+ during the last two weeks for the 52 year old. In total Cathy has done 141 routes graded 8a+ out of which the first one more than 20 years ago. She started climbing in 1985 being 21 years old. The amazing thing is that the last 12 months have been her best ever with 16 routes 8a+ to 8b.

Jernej Kruder, #1 and #2 in the two first Boulder World Cups 2018, has done the 55 meter long Water World in Osp/Misja Pec. "with my new first crux beta, not so hard I guess." Interesting is that this monster endurance session was his last preparation for the next two Boulder World Cups in China. As a matter of a fact, Kruder says he has not have had one single indoor session since he returned from Moscow!

Anna Liina Laitinen reports on her Insta that her boyfriend Matty Hong has done Fight or Flight. As can be seen by the picture by Francois Lebleau there is a long flight down if you miss that last jug. Matty has previously done three 9a+' and he is also a professional photographer taking great pictures of his climbing world class friends like when Margo Hayes did La Rambla 9a+.