Finals for the 11th edition of ABS Nationals went down Saturday night in Alexandria, VA and it sounded like quite the show. Daniel Woods topped a strong men’s field and Alex Puccio edged out Alex Johnson (again) with some surprises following them on the podium, especially on the Men’s side of the ledger. Here are the top 5 finishers:
| Men’s Results | Women’s Results |
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Complete records are hard to come by but I believe this was Woods’ 3rd win in the past 4 years while Puccio has won 4 out of the past 5 years losing a close battle with Alex Johnson last year.
Of course, if you weren’t in the gym you really had no way of seeing the action unfold which is unfortunate in my opinion. Jamie Emerson tried his best to keep us posted via his twitter feed but he reached Twitter’s limit right as the heavy hitters were starting to climb. Garrett Gregor was also at the comp posting videos to twitter via his cell phone which was certainly better than nothing. Hopefully this will be the last year without some sort of live stream.
For pictures of Finals you can check out Ben Carlson’s site.
Report from routesetter Chris Danielson
Excellent pictures from Caroline Treadway. Part 1. Part 2.
Good discussion about the comp scene in posts on B3Bouldering here and here.
Gabor Szekely’s thoughts from a competitor’s perspective
I’ll update this post as more media becomes available.
Here are 4 videos of Daniel Woods:
Daniel Woods completes problem 1 of ABS Bouldering National Championships from Lu on Vimeo.
Daniel Woods completes problem 2 at ABS National Bouldering Championships from Lu on Vimeo.
Daniel Woods completes problem 3 at ABS National Bouldering Championships from Lu on Vimeo.
To be clear, this last video was taken after the comp. Thanks to B3 for clarifying.
Daniel Woods, final problem. Wins ABS National Bouldering Championship from Lu on Vimeo.
There was an attempt to stream video of the comp live, but the cost was exorbitant. I wouldn’t have ever guess Twitter had a limit on posting. Isn’t excessive posting the point?
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Yeah, they apparently limit the number of updates you can post in a given time period for performance/anti-spamming reasons.
I guess it might be a little unfair for people to expect a live stream, but the Mammut comp last summer sort of set a precedent that such a thing was possible. Even Canada was able to pull it off! 🙂
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Woods is an absolute monster.
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No disrespect to Daniel, he’s an amazing climber… but last time I checked, he wasn’t the only climber there at the ABS nationals. I’d like to see more of the silent-but-deadly climbers like Matt Bosley and Robert D’Anastasio. With all the media attention surrounding Woods, I almost forgot that there’s an actual American TEAM. Just saying…
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I’m sure that as time passes more media will emerge from the comp featuring all the top climbers. These videos just happen to be the first ones out there.
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It’s not clear from the video, but Men’s 4 didn’t get sent in the comp. Daniel swung from the last pinch but didn’t hold it. After Paul and Vasya climbed he got back on, fell once, and then sent. It was a nice moment for him and the crowd.
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Nice…….
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