Last weekend saw many of the world’s best youth climbers descend on Imst, Austria for the 2011 World Youth Championships of sport and speed climbing. When the dust settled Sasha DiGiulian was the only American to stand on the podium for sport climbing finishing 3rd in a closely contested Female Juniors. Here are the rest of the results including where the 26 American entrants finished:
| Male Juniors – (18/19 years old) |
Female Juniors – (18/19 years old) |
- Jure Raztresen (SLO)
- Edward Hamer (GBR)
- Stefano Ghisolfi (ITA)
- 20. Alex Johnson (USA)
- 22. Alex Fritz (USA)
- 40. Andrew Kim (USA)
- 47. Danny Aleksovski (USA)
- 51. Augy Cohn (USA)
|
- Julia Serriere (FRA)
- Johanna Ernst (AUT)
- Sasha DiGiulian (USA)
- 20. Francesca Metcalf (USA)
- 25. Jesse Youngwerth (USA)
- 38. Lila Neahring (USA)
- 42. Sierra Carroll (USA)
|
| Male Youth A – (16/17 years old) |
Female Youth A – (16/17 years old) |
- Domen Skofic (SLO)
- Dmitry Fakiryanov (RUS)
- Loic Timmermans (BEL)
- 20. Josh Levin (USA)
- 30. Dominic LaBarge (USA)
- 40. Joseph Gifford (USA)
- 43. Kyle Francis (USA)
|
- Magdalena Röck (AUT)
- Momoka Oda (JPN)
- Tina Johnsen Hafsaas (NOR)
- 15. Delaney Miller (USA)
- 22. Dana Riddle (USA)
- T-23. Michaela Kiersch (USA)
- 31. Audrey Hsu (USA)
|
| Male Youth B – (14/15 years old) |
Female Youth B – (14/15 years old) |
- Bernhard Röck (AUT)
- Naoki Shimatani (JPN)
- Keiichiro Korenaga (JPN)
- 8. Ben Isaac Tresco (USA)
- 18. Brendan Mitchell (USA)
- 29. Solomon Barth (USA)
- 41. Nicholas Bradley (USA)
|
- Jessica Pilz (AUT)
- Ievgeniia Kazbekova (UKR)
- Salomé Romain (FRA)
- 10. Katherine Lamb (USA)
- 22. Laurel Todd (USA)
- 29. Callie Walter (USA)
- 44. Jacquelyn Wu (USA)
|
If speed climbing is your thing then you’ll have to click through to one of the results links to get to the results from that portion of the event.
For some photos of the event check out this gallery from Luka Fonda on the Positive Vibes Facebook page or this huge gallery of pictures by Ernst Riha on the event’s Facebook page.
It would be nice if you included speed climbing results with the rest of the American results for postings like this. Like it or not, Speed Climbing is becoming a huge part of the competitive climbing world. Some kids train year round for speed climbing, focusing more on that than competitive bouldering/sport climbing.
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Speed Climbing is neither 🙂
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Actually, the US team did better at speed climbing overall. I believe a majority of the team made finals (top 16) although no one made podium.
In sport climbing only 2 made finals (top 8) although about 50 percent made semi finals (top 26-28).
Speed has a lot in common with bouldering – power and dynes.
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correct, we had one competitor place 5th in her category in speed and many more in the finals than in difficulty.
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Could that have something to do with the much lower participation rate for speed climbing compared to sport climbing?
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that’s a shame
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Doubtful, speed climbing is huge in Europe. Some countries have teams that train speed ONLY on a year round basis (Russia is one example).
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I guess I don’t get speed climbing. If there were no comps for it would anybody really be doing it? Other than the obsession with speed climbing The Nose it has no real relation to outdoor aspects of the sport like bouldering and sport climbing do.
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Very true, it has no relation to outdoor climbing really. Honestly though, indoor/comp climbing in general is moving farther from outdoor climbing in becoming its own discipline. For many athletes, competition climbing is no longer simply training for real routes or boulder problems.
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Very true, it has no relation to outdoor climbing really. Honestly though, indoor/comp climbing in general is moving farther from outdoor climbing in becoming its own discipline. For many athletes, competition climbing is no longer simply training for real routes or boulder problems.
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I was once told by an outside climbing guide that 80% of all indoor gym climbers never make it outside. Personally, as I watch the growth of the sport (both indoors and outdoors), I think the number might be even higher.
A market 5 times larger than before the advent of indoor climbing affords all climbers access to better and cheaper ropes, harnesses, belay equipment and shoes.
Other sports also have their differences: cross country vs. track, open water vs. pool, roman greco vs. wrestling, skiing vs. snowboarding.
The more important think is to give the youth credit for their hard work. Whether it is bouldering, sport or speed – all the kids work hard, have blistered fingers to prove it and have performed well on the world scale where many competition climbers are government supported.
To the coaches point, In the final medal count for speed it was the following:
Gold Silver Bronze
Russia 4 2 2
Poland 1 1 0
Ukraine 1 0 1
Austria 0 2 0
France 0 1 0
US Results
Male Junior
14 Kim Addison
18 Julian Boyd
20 Will Roderick
21 Augy Cohn
Female Junior
5 Francesca Metcalf
14 Taylor Clarkin
17 Lena Ray
19 Caroline Corcoran
Male Youth A
10 Josh Levin (US Record Holder for 10m)
13 Dominic Labarge
15 Thomas Pitzel
16 Kyle Francis
Female Youth A
12 Dana Riddle (2010 Youth B World Champion)
17 Delaney Miller
24 Kelly Birch
25 Ilana Wernick
Male Youth B
11 Collier Skinn
15 Sean Bailey
16 Brendan Mitchell
18 Jacob Wilber
Female Youth B
8 Kayla Liu
9 Jacquelyn Wu
13 Baily Dickinson
14 Marisa Romero
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For clarification, Kayla Lieuw actually finished 5th.
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And Francesca finished 4th. Kayla also currently holds the record as the fastest female in the US, of any category on the 10m wall. Thanks to RCD for posting all the speed results and a huge congratulations to all the competitors at the event.
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I think anyone who has participated in climbing competitions can argue that there is limited relevance in any competition discipline to actual climbing outdoors. If you’re going to report on the accomplishments of some of the kids, why not for all of them? They worked hard, climbed well and deserve credit too.
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Last year I didn’t post about the event at all so this is still a 50% improvement in giving kids credit…
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I think the posting is very much appreciated.
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Name one professional climber that has made a living off of competitive speed climbing on artificial walls.
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I’m with Narc. There’s something strange and twisted about climbing the same route again and again, training for speed. It’s as if you took dancers and timed them running the hundred meters. Sure, running is part of the movement repertoire of dance, but most dancers don’t care how fast they run. Speed is a part of climbing because in routes you are often racing the “pump clock,” but still, most people don’t value speed over sending.
I can understand speed records on multipitch climbs, because the logistics are significant, and the climbing long and varied. It’s an endurance sport, as well as a creative and bold pursuit. However climbing the exact same 5.9-ish route over and over again is my idea of climbing hell. I can’t help be distrustful of competition climbers who specialize in speed; I have a hard time considering them climbers.
In fact, I think speed climbing distorts the nature of our sport in the eyes of non-climbers. Do we have Olympic free-throw-shooting? Olympic pirouetting? Speed climbing should be abolished… or at least moved to the “track and field” category, outside of climbing comps.
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Like it or not, it is here to stay and is becoming a bigger part of our sport every day. It’s rather disrespectful to the athletes who thoroughly enjoy the sport to say it should be abolished. Speed Climbing is being integrated with Bouldering and Difficulty (sport) in competitions more and more, and all three will be a part of the Olympics some day. Most climbers do not focus solely on speed, and many of the fastest speed climbers in the US are also some of the strongest climbers in bouldering and sport.
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It certainly is being integrated more into other aspects of comp climbing. I understand why (to make things go faster and make it easier to understand for scoring), but I certainly don’t like it. It’s introducing an element into bouldering or sport climbing that has no natural relevance to that activity. The amount of time it has taken someone to send a boulder problem or redpoint a route has never mattered. Introducing contrived speed elements can make comps exciting and easier for the layperson to follow, but as Rajiv points out it only serves to further reinforce to uninformed spectators that climbing is all about speed which it isn’t.
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I know that most of you have never speed climbed before so it is difficult to understand, but have you ever considered that people actually simply enjoy it? I coach plenty of kids who love speed climbing, as well as bouldering and roped climbing. The training we do for speed climbing is helpful in many ways including agility, reaction time, sequencing, muscle memory and more. If you truly think that it has no relation to other aspects of climbing then that is your choice. I used to hold the same opinion, in fact I thought it should be totally removed from comps. Through knowledge and experience my opinion has changed. In the end though, I am not really trying to convince all of you to love and/or participate in speed climbing- rather to acknowledge the hard work and discipline put forth by those who do choose to pursue it, and to treat it with some measure of respect.
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Speed will be in the Olympics before sport climbing. People enjoy watching sprints vs marathons.
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