Canadian Bouldering Championships Semi-Finals

This weekend the Tour de Bloc made its final stop of the year with the MEC Canadian Bouldering Championships at Coyote Rock Gym in Ottawa.

Report and photos by Aidas Odonelis

Canada’s strongest men and women, along with a handful of American’s competed for the top spots through a day of qualifying, following by semi finals, and finally the much anticipated finals. After a long day of qualifying on Saturday, the top contenders were as many had expected they would be. Canada’s golden boy, Sean McColl secured his place in semi-finals by qualifying first, followed by Dylan Barks- who has become a common sight at the Tour stops. Third and Fourth spots were taken by west coasters Jason Hollowach and Josh Muller. For the women Elise Sethna took the first spot followed by Torontonian Bonnie De Brujin and Nova Scotian strong woman Holly Reid.

Full qualification results here.

Moving into Semi Finals the crowd was looking forward to a good show on eight problems set by Chief Setter- Dustin Curtis, and Assistant setters Fred Charron, and Jody Miall. Only six men and women advance into finals out of 12. The problems are set to test the climbers ability entirely, hopefully allowing the most well balanced competitor to emerge victorious.

The crowd watched with anticipation as their favourite climbers pulled on and gave their best efforts. McColl, failing to stick a marginal dead-point to a slot on Men’s number three, dropped to third place with top spots being taken by Dylan Barks in first, and Josh Larson in second. Fourth, fifth, and sixth place spots were taken by Sebastian Lazure, Jason Holowach, and Yves Gravelle respectively.

Kerry Briggs performed admirably and clinched the first place spot to enter finals in front of her hometown crowd. Second and third place were taken by Jelisa Dunar and Celeste Wall respectively. First place qualifier Elise Sethna unfortunately fell from first but still kept a spot in the finals with a fourth place spot at the end of semi finals followed by Thomasina Pidgeon and Marieta Akalski in fifth and sixth place.