Yannick Flohé and Kokoro Fujii won their respective group in the World Championship Boulder qualification, with Kokoro the only one topping out all five boulders. Tomoa Narasaki and Mejdi Schalck were the tied #3. Only seven of the Olympians participated out of which three did not make the Top-20 semi; Jakob Schubert #27, Jan Hojer #43 and Jongwon Chon #49. Japan and dominated with five Top-21 and France had four Top-13. Complete results

Birte Gutmayer has done her first 8c, Nobody is perfect in Bürs. "15 days in two years. After the first four quickdraws the hardest moves are done. The rest is 5 stars endurance climbing."

Natalia Grossman and Brooke Raboutou won their respective group when the female Boulder qualification started. Many of the big stars like all the three medalists in Tokyo are missing. Interesting is that only five of the Olympians participated and besides Raboutou and Viktoriia Meshkova, who was #3, the other three missed the semifinal; Mia Krampl #29, Jessica Pilz #35 and Chaehyon Seo #43. Complete results (c) Jan Virt/IFSC

Natalia Kalucka and Danyil Boldyrev are the new Speed World Champions. Boldyrev, who also got the gold in 2014, won his first final race with 0.004 seconds and in the quarter-final, his opponent fell. Then he had the third fastest time in the semi but did anyhow advance to the final where he won in a clean race against Erik Noya Cordona with 5.73 against 5.95.

Natalia (19) won the Youth World Champion in Moscow in 2018 and her previous best in the World Cup is #5. Runner-up was Iuliia Kaplina and the bronze got Aleksandra Miroslaw, who had the three best times but fell in the semi.

Staša Gejo, who is one of the favourites for the Moscow World Championship, did Willenberg Dach 8A in April. The video shows the spectacular moves where she twice goes feet first.

Baptiste Dherbilly reports on Insta that he has done the first repeat of Mandallaz Drive 9a in Allonzier la Caille. It was put up by Fred Rouling in 2004, video. Baptiste, who previously has done the first repeat also of Rouhling's 9a+ Salamandre, has projected it for three years. (c) Mathieu Pisaniello

Why do you think it has not been repeated for 17 years?
I think it’s the style of the route. It’s old school with very small holds so it’s not a popular route. It’s very specific and bouldery on the first twelve movements (8B bouldering ). After you have to climb an 8c. The whole route is very technical with a strange beta! It’s incredible for me to do it after so many years and attempts. A lot of specific training and perseverance was needed.

What kind of and how much specific training was needed? Replica?
Strength finger, Heel hooking, One finger pocket and power endurance. I began to work on Mandallaz Drive three years ago. During periods of bad weather or hot conditions, I climb on the indoor wall in the same style, or on a replica. Also, Moonboarding and dead-hang really helped me.

What is next?
I want to try Empreinte to see if it’s possible for me. It’s the last one of Fred none repeated routes. But there are so many unknown lines. They are waiting to be discovered!

We are happy to release an updated and improved version of the gallery feature. With this new release, we've re-introduced the upload and edit features (in profile, crag, area and global galleries), you can share pictures, and you can browse the new global gallery where the most recent pictures appear first. The thousands of pictures that have been uploaded by 8a members in the last years are once again viewable in a format that does them justice. We thank you again for all your photo contributions!

Miho Nonaka, who got the silver in the Olympics, reports on Insta that she has done Mr Hyde 8c+ in Céüse. Interestingly, her previous personal best was 7c+! (c) Ben Neilson