YiLing Song has set a new World Record by 7.101 seconds in the Quarterfinal run, dispatching the old mark of 7.32 held by both Iuliia Kaplina and Anouck Jaubert. Song continued winning as she also did in the first event. (c) Eddie Fowke Among the male, Alifan Muhammed won his first event. His fastest time was 5.91 which actually was slower then the all the Top-5 best times. Two weeks ago Akifan was #24 and his best in 2018 was #6. Video of the finals. Complete results

During the Speed qualification in Chongqing, we can see that both the Specialists and the Boulderers, set new standards. Kokoro Fujii did 6.62 which is the second fastest ever, after Mickael Mawem at 6.34, by a none-Speed specialist. Manuel Cornu was runner up at 6.68 and Jan Hojer third at 6.76 among the big names. Another eight did were below 7.2 seconds, so we are talking a big general improvement. Among the female, Janja Garnbret set a new personal best with 9.46 being #3 among the none-Speed specialist after Elena Krasovskaya at 8.96 and Sol Sa at 9.41. Kyra Kondie was fourth at 9.56 followed by 16 year old Oceania Mackenzie at 9.64. Akiyo Noguchi, Petra Klingler and Julia Chanourdie did also go below 10 seconds. Complete results

Rock & Ice has made a nice portrait of Kyle Roseborrough who died in Leonidio ten days ago "when an anchor failed as he lowered." It should be mentioned that it is not clear what happened as no problem with the anchor bolts have been reported. Kyle (45) was a very experienced 8b climber.

Babsi Zangerl reports on Insta that she has done Atlantic 8c and Missing Link 8c+ in Voralpsee. (c) Jacopo Larcher who just did Speed Integrale 9a. First day she checked the moves twice and then after a rest day she sent it directly after placing the draws and checking the moves again. "I couldn't train so much this winter due to an nerve compression on my old broken disc. I had to rest 7 weeks. So right after the climbing break I started with rock climbing again. It was a big surprise. I definitely think it fits definitely my style." Ten years ago, Barbara Zangerl was one of the very best female boulderers in the world. In 2009, she got an herniated vertebral disc which made her stop bouldering. Including one 9a and several 8c+' she is also nowadays among the best in sportclimbing and the same goes for trad, where she has done several 8b+' and 8c. Even so, big-walls and multi-pitches should be her best discipline with three FFA's in Yosemite up to 8c. So she is the best female multi-discipline rock climber out there, and in fact, a rather superior #1.

The Chongqing World Cup starts on Friday with Speed qualification and Finals. Interesting is that Adam Ondra once again skip Speed and that Shauna Coxsey and Miho Nonaka are not present. Nonaka has been injured but is scheduled for competing in Wujiang the following weekend. Coxsey has the last week posting swimming, bouldering and surfing pictures on her Insta from Marocco. Sunday GMT +8 09.30-11.45 Men & Women Bouldering Semi-finals [LIVE] 17.00-18.30 Men Bouldering Final [LIVE] 18.30-20.00 Women Bouldering Final [LIVE]

During Boulder World Cup finals, normally each boulder are lighten up by a spotlight just few minutes before the first person enters. Then the holds are in constant spotlight and get continuously warmed up for some 24 minutes. This means that the conditions deteriorate minute by minute which make the last climber, the winner of the semi, face the worst friction. It should be noted that in the Olympic finals with eight climbers, the last climber face holds that have been in the spotlight for some 32 minutes. The simple solution to get more fair conditions during the finals is to use led-spotlights.

Donate money to Climbing For All Sheffield.

Marco Jubes: "I have developed a card game that in order to teach, learn and organize route setting for competitions and commercial gym. It is also possible to use the routesetting game to train with the team. Is a nice way to push your limits as a Routesetter and get very nice challenges. My goal with this game is to share this idea with the setting community. I have already talked with a lot of expert Routesetters and they really love the game. Another thing important for me is with this game I will not get any benefit for the selling. I will give all the money to support CAC (Climbers Against Cancer). The price of the game for me cost around 5€ (design/ production and distribution) and I will sell it for 10€ which means around 5€ directly to CAC. If you want to order in Europe you can write to [email protected], to order in the USA [email protected]. We are happy to have new distributors in all the countries, interested? just write us!"

Alex Puccio has done her fifth 8B+, Heritage in Valle Bavona. (c) Robin O'Leary Including also 26 8B's, Alex has the most impressive female tick list and a wide pyramid foundation for going for 8C. In 2014, she got the silver in the world championship and she won her last and only World Cup she did in 2018. "Wow.... psyched! 1st try on my 6th or 7th day. I fell off the last move 3rd day on it 2 times and then for the next days I was struggling to stay on the wall due to the warmth and high humidity! Finally got a windy, but warm day. Didn’t even warm up. Last day best day!!!! :) This boulder is way harder being under a certain height! Have to hop out of the toe hook for the first crux move to the left hand gastone and then the last move to the right hand just under the lip is WAY harder since for my height you can’t use the good left lower foot others use. Have to ball up and punch to the last hold. Was a huge crux for me!!!"