Arco 2015, Canadians Advance to Semis

Canada has three athlete advancing to Lead semi-finals at the World Youth Climbing Championships in Arco, Italy. 

After a short rain delay this afternoon, all athletes attempted their second qualifier.  Becca Frangos sits in 22^nd and Pia Graham in 25^th in Female Junior.  Lucas Uchida finished 20^th in the Male Youth A category.  We had several other athletes that were close but didn’t quite make the top 26 in their categories.  The top eight from each category in tomorrow’s semi-finals will advance to finals on Saturday, September 5.

Filip Schenk of Italy topped his second qualifier to take the lead in the Male Youth B category.  Kai Lightner from the U.S. was the only Male Youth A competitor to top both climbs.  Japan’s Keiichiro Korenaga and Naoki Shimatani are in first and second in Male Junior.

Ashima Shiraishi from the U.S. topped both qualifiers and sits in first place in Female Youth B. Janja Garnbret of Slovenia topped both and leads Female Youth A.  Jessica Pilz of Austria and Belgium’s Anak Verhoeven are tied for first place in the Female Junior category after topping both of their climbs.

[shareprints gallery_id=”14827″ gallery_type=”thumb_slider” gallery_position=”pos_center” gallery_width=”width_100″ image_size=”large” image_padding=”0″ theme=”dark” image_hover=”false” lightbox_type=”slide” titles=”true” captions=”true” descriptions=”true” comments=”true” sharing=”true”]– All photos by Shane Murdoch, a B.C.-based climber and photographer covering the Arco competition for Gripped.