From One Olympian to the Next: A New National Champion
Nathaniel Coleman's title has been picked up by another US Olympian in a hard won battle against a Ben Hanna
This evening saw the end of an unprecedented five-day event. After four days of Lead, Speed, and a Boulder qualification round, athletes chalked up once again for the final two rounds of the 2021 USA Climbing National Championships.
A physical M1 greeted a sixth placed Ben Hanna. Unfazed, Hanna took to the grip-less boulder problem and stood high on missile-like volume. Pressing into a massive trapezoid-like volume with his right hand, he matched in with his left exploded out to the box’s right corner. Holding the swing, he negotiated the almost unreadable problem, and swung his feet onto a volume.
Squeezing, Hanna proceeded to run a clinic on volume mobility, pressing out to the terrible sloping edge of a backward-facing Flathold dish. Upon attaining this Zone, Hanna flipped the left hand into a relatively poor Flathold sloper. Compressing, Hanna moved his feet high onto the trapezoid and carried on to wrap the Top volume. Squeezing with his feet he secured the first Top of the night with a flash of M1. The pressure was on.
Speed Champion Joe Goodacre followed and immediately demonstrated the difficulty of Hanna’s feat. The extremely physical problem in some ways suited Goodacre, but it took a great deal of energy. Goodacre managed to wrestle his way near the Top of the problem, but with mere seconds on the clock, ran out of time to find the correct foot beta required to match the finish. Goodacre’s result was not unique.
Zander Waller and Simon Hibbeler followed with similarly difficult results. They managed to secure Zone after four and eight attempts respectively. Zach Galla came out next and secured the Zone in three attempts but failed find his way to the top of the wall. After an incredible display of power, Galla appeared to lose the body position leaving the door open for US Olympian Colin Duffy.
Duffy has been on a streak since the Olympics and managed to maintain his consistency in flashing M1. The event then moved to a complicated M2 where athletes were asked to layback a negative pinch with near-vertical volume foot. Maintaining tension, competitors then negotiated right into a gibbed foot that preceded a sloping right hand.
Where many would ultimately find establishing difficult, Hanna found his place. He rocked right to the hand, generating to a double dyno that transferred into a lateral double clutch to catch a positive hold. Mantling on the second grip, Hanna secured his second consecutive flash of the night.
Not to be outdone, Goodacre took to the field. He found trouble completing the start but pushed his way through to the final mantle. Nearly getting his foot up, he fell, but caught himself before hitting the ground. Suspended, Goodacre aimed to rest by bat hanging in the middle of his attempt. Resetting, he went to go again, but couldn’t recover.
The rest of the field managed to send the problem in varying numbers of attempts. Once again, Duffy flashed. The crowd looked to M3.
After two massive power boulders, the setters slowed their athletes on a technical M3. Hanna once more stood in front of the crowd and took to the technical problem. Pressing off a button, Hanna placed his left foot on a sizeable hold and crossed his right leg through to a negative sloping volume rocking down into a sloping press. Hanna went too quick and slipped as he tried to stop his momentum.
Taking a second attempt, he went again and made it through to a compressing sequence where he stood high, moved with great flow and secured the Top for the route. Goodacre could not move far past the Zone, but Waller showed his stuff and earned the second Top of M3. Hibbeler also fell just short and Galla took to the field.
Losing it on his first attempt, he had to move quick to find the Top before time ran out. Saving an out of balance swing, Galla moved almost mechanically to the final hold and did what only he can do. He was perfectly locked after he recovered his balance. The pressure then came onto Duffy.
Fumbling with the start, Duffy managed to stay on the wall but fell on the final move as Galla had before him. Moving very quickly, Duffy found himself doing a one-two to the finish, ultimately catching a blocked crimp with great precision and force.
It was time for M4. In both the qualification and semi-final rounds, the steep wall had been allocated for the women’s field. In this final boulder, the terrain had been given to the final climb of the National Championships. Hanna took to the mats and began moving up the edges.
The final problem climbed through four similar volumes. Upon leaving crimps bolted to the angle, Hanna crossed to the first edge on the first volume with his left hand. Jumping to the third crimp, he caught it and swung his feet over to attain an opposing undercling on the second volume. Hooking his toe behind a positive dish, he tried to catch the grip he toe-hooked with his right hand. Falling, he tried again. He fell and tried an alternative beta, once more failing to find success. With seconds left, Hanna fired for the hold with his original hooking beta, secured the grip, simultaneously earned Zone, and fired for the paddle dyno that he secured before timing out. If he had five more seconds he may have topped. The door was open for Duffy.
All of the athletes who followed managed to flash to zone, but none earned the coveted Top. Only Duffy pulled well through the bottom of the climb. He did not waste a movement in jumping-for and attain the paddle dyno that protected the finish. Secure, he concluded the route and established himself the new US Boulder National Champion. This gold will go with Duffy’s silver from Lead Nationals this weekend.
Result
1 – Colin Duffy
2 – Ben Hanna
3 – Zach Galla
4 – Zander Waller
5 – Simon Hibbeler
6 – Joe Goodacre
Featured image of Colin Duffy by Daniel Gajda
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