IFSC World Youth Championships, the male Boulder report

This morning at 10:00am sharp they kicked off the action. And until 19:00 this evening they battled it out, relentlessly. The playing field was the legendary Arco Climbing Stadium onto which, once again, the sun shone brightly and without casting a shadow. And the stakes were high: the World Youth Climbing Championships. The athletes out in the vertical field were fighting their way through the Boulder qualifications, 244 of them, split into three categories: Youth B (born in 2000, 2001), Youth A (1998,1999), and Juniors (1996, 1997). Only the best 20 of each category qualified for the Semifinal and the qualifiers were by no means easy. They needed to deal with all variables climbing can throw at you.Strength, explosive power and delicate balance and intuition were needed to solve the different problems. The top, the final hold, was by definition the solution. And, at the same time, the only way to secure a place into the next round. Right from the outset the task seemed unsurmountable. But when the going gets tough, the tough get going. And this second World Championship day witnessed some mighty fine climbing. No one held back. Confirming that, here and now, in the Climbing Stadium, there’s the (great) future of this sport.

Talking about difficulties. An example of this came in the youngest Youth B (Under 16) category where 15-year-old Filip Schenk from nearby Val Gardena qualified first with 3 tops in 6 attempts (2 of which on his first attempt!). The Italian beat provisional World Ranking #1 Mikel Asier Linacisoro Molina from Spain who qualified first with 3 tops in 14 attempts, the same score as Hayato Nakamura from Japan. So not even Molina and Nakamura managed to send all problems. And neither did the others who, in this order, followed him into the Semis with just 2 problems sent: Love Ymer Alber (Swe), Zach Richardson (Can), Philipp Geisenhoff (Sui) and Italy’s Matteo Manzoni. Followed by Yufei Pan (Chn), Christian Range (Ger), Rafal Bak (Pol) and Léo Ferrera. Italys’ hopes fly high with 19th placed David Piccolaruaz.

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