Impossible to Predict – New U.S.A. Speed National Champions
Speed finals concluded yesterday evening with America's youth showing that they may soon become the leaders in the discipline
The 2021 USA Climbing National Championships continued yesterday afternoon, pushing athletes and presumptions to the edge of expectation. The final event for the fastest sport in the world drew to a close yesterday evening.
The slim margins of this discipline always come with their shares of risk. Team USA’s national record holder John Brosler had a difficult qualification round running a couple of seconds over his potential and failing to finish on his second of the two qualification routes.
This unfortunate result may have come from a desire to set a new National record. Such a pace lends itself to the possibility of mistakes. While he did not run as fast as he may have wanted, in his practice runs for the day, Brosler ran a 5.4 which would have established a new national record had it presented in competition. He remains one to watch.
The final round began later that evening and took the 16 fastest qualifiers from each gender category. Finalists then race dan eighth final, a quarter final, a half final and a final. In each round the number of competitive athletes is paired down by half.
Kicking off the women’s event, number one seed Emma Hunt took on 16 seed Olivia Busk. Hunt ran a 7.59, and earned her way into the next round. Hunt is unique among US speed climbers as she has a degree of proficiency in each of sport climbing’s three disciplines. After making semis for lead the day before, Hunt maintained focus and strength for today’s competition.
After moving through the eighth final, Hunt ran progressively quicker times in the quarter and half finals that followed. Dropping from 7.59 to 7.43 to 7.38, Hunt became the only woman in the first three rounds to run under eight seconds. Her speed is unmatched in the field and built into an exciting final where she took on Stone Summit teammate Callie Close.
Close ran an 8.57 in the eighth final and steadily improved across the subsequent rounds. In the quarter and half finals, she ran an 8.22 and 8.21 respectively, climbing effectively without mistake. This pair of athletes showed themselves extremely consistent, moving without fault through to the final round of the event.
In the small final, a competition that decides third and fourth place, Liberty Runnels and Piper Kelly faced off in a final bout of competition. This event marked Kelly’s return to competition following a shoulder injury. He strong performance culminated in a third-place finish. She ran faster than Runnels throughout the competition by around a tenth of a second per round. Runnels climbed well, but appeared to lose consistency toward the end of the event. At 15-years-old, Runnels ran an incredible debut event in the open field, ultimately walking away with fourth position.
Close and Hunt then descended on the final. Pulling fast off the ground, the teammates moved with identical beta through the first sequence. Slipping, Hunt missed a foot placement low down but managed to remain on the wall. Still, this foot placement cost her the race as Close ran her fastest run of the final with 8.18. The teammates hugged having earned the top two medals for their gym.
The men’s field provided a less surprising result, but an exciting mid-round experience. From the onset, Micah Liss surprised. Liss raced Silas Chang in the eighth final, and both athletes slipped at different portions of the route. They tied with a 7.28, a result that almost never occurs in speed climbing. Following the remaining competitors in the round, Liss and Chang ran again. Both climbed much faster earning 6.16 and 6.69 respectively.
Liss moved onto the quarter final where he faced Merritt Ernsberger. Ernsberger ran a blistering 5.95 in the eighth final, but somehow failed to trigger the stop button at the top of the route. To stop the clock, speed climbers must break the laser trigger with their hand. Although Liss ran a quick 5.84, Ernsberger did make it to the top of the wall first. However, he didn’t break the laser and failed to stop his clock. It was a heartbreaking finish for Ernsberger.
Liss maintained consistency and speed. He took on Sam Watson, a man who had already defeated the quick Noah Bratschi in the quarter final. Despite this pressure, Liss ran well and earned himself bronze where Watson earned a respectable fourth position.
Although Watson was a darkhorse in this competition, he was not the only unexpected name to reach the final round of competition. 16-year-old Rafe Stokes ran a wild event, often slipping and recovering to earn his way to the next round. Beginning the eighth final with a run of 6.41, Stokes climbed a 6.45, a 7.06, and a 6.82 to find his way into finals. Guest commentator Alex Johnson noted the youth of he and his peers mentioning “future Olympians” as Rafe secured another victory.
While Rafe climbed a solid event, he would ultimately compete against all-round strong man Joe Goodacre. Goodacre has established himself as a consistent speed climber over the last year and found two personal bests in yesterday’s proceedings. Running both a 6.02 in the quarter final and a 6.01 in the half final, Goodacre has the capacity to break the six-minute mark at his very next competition. Regardless, Goodacre’s consistency is his greatest strength and became the reason he defeated Rafe in the final round of competition.
It is worth nothing that both Goodacre and Hunt are extremely proficient in multiple disciplines while also being near the top in the US speed category. Although Goodacre is far from holding the national record, he became the National Champion despite his proclivity for bouldering.
While Hunt may be a speed specialist, she also has strong generalist capabilities. If they make semi-finals in bouldering today, they will both end up competing for five consecutive days in what will become one of the most rigorous competitions of their lives.
Podium
Women
1 – Callie Close
2 – Emma Hunt
3 – Piper Kelly
Men
1 – Joe Goodacre
2 – Rafe Stokes
3 – Micah Liss
Featured image of Emma Hunt by Jan Virt
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