Canadian National Championships Results and Photos

On May 18, the Canadian National Lead and Speed Sport Climbing Championships wrapped up at The Boulders in Saanich B.C. 

After three days of inspiring climbing by some of North America’s leading competition climbers, Climbing Escalade Canada (CEC) crowned the champions of each category.

This was the final event for the CEC’s 2014/2015 season. The youth champions are eligible to represent Canada at the IFSC World Youth Championships in Arco, Italy in August.

[shareprints gallery_id=”13146″ 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”]Photos by Shane Murdoch

Qualifiers took place on Saturday as climbers did their best on two separate routes and the top 16 went to semi-finals on Sunday morning. The top eight from Sunday went on to finals on Monday.

In Youth C Female, Ontario climber Indiana Chapman finished in first place as she topped out the qualifying and semis routes and had a strong climb on the finals. For Youth C Male, it was B.C. climber Brennan Doyle who took home gold.

In Youth B Female, Sophie Buitendyk from B.C. added another win to her resume, which includes the B.C. provincial title from her April win. Another strong Ontario climber, Zach Richardson, won for the Youth B Male.

For the last youth category, Melina Constanza from Seattle took home the win for Youth A Female. That means Beth Vince, the highest ranking Canadian, became the Canadian champion for her second place finish. In the Youth A Male, it was American Kai Lightner who lit it up in finals for the win. Second place finisher, Ontario’s very strong Lucas Uchida, finished in second and became the Canadian champion.

In the Junior Female category, Alberta climber Becca Frangos crushed during the three rounds of competition to not only win Juniors, but take home the Canadian championship for Open. B.C. climber Hannah Block finished in second and Ontario’s Pia Graham in third.

For Junior Male, Ontario’s Nathan Smith won gold after an impressive few days of climbing. He was followed in second by Albertans Matt Hendsbee and Andrew Funk.

The winner for Open Female was American Delaney Miller who dominated the event and in second was fellow American Constanza Miller (winner of Youth A). Becca Frangos finished in third, but was the highest ranking Canadian, which resulted in her national championship. Albertan Alyssa Weber took home second place for Canadians and Quebec’s Annie Chouinard finished in third.

For the Open Male division, Sean McColl continued his impressive winning streak on Canadian soil. McColl also finished third in Canadian speed and seventh at the IFSC speed world cup with a personal best time of 7.98 seconds. In second was B.C. climber Elan-Jonas McRae and in third was American Kai Lightner. The third place Canadian was Lucas Uchida.

Speed Climbing

The IFSC speed climbing world cup took place on Sunday. For those results, visit here.

For the Canadian National Speed Championships, Czech climber Libor Hroza set a world record, but after learned it didn’t count due to a false start. He would race again and take home gold. American Max Hunter took place, which means third place B.C. climber Tristen Gosselin became the Canadian Champion.

For the Open Female division, Iranian climber Faranz Esmaeilzadeh won gold and second place B.C. climber Alison Stewart-Patterson is the Canadian Champion.