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August 23rd-26th 2007 -
Team Vertical World @ Youth World Championship
The 2007 Youth World Climbing
Championships were held in Ibarra, Ecuador over the weekend of August 23-26. The
VERTICAL WORLD CLIMBING TEAM
had 5 of it's members qualify for the US National Team and 3 that were eligible
for the event. The 2 members that made the US Team, but are not eligible to
attend because or age are Audrey Hsu 2nd in FYC and Kale Perrone 4th in MYD.
The VERTICAL WORLD CLIMBING TEAM
that did attend the event were Meg Coyne, Melissa Main,
and Bryan Hopkins headed down early to get acclimatized and train for the event.
Tyson Schoene the head coach for the VERTICAL WORLD CLIMBING TEAM
attended and is also one of the coaches for the US
National Team.
Qualifiers began on Thursday, and was a Flash Format (no isolation), so all of
the competitors got a chance to see the forerunner and as well watch the other
climbers until their turn in the running order. Both Bryan Hopkins and Melissa
Main flashed their route while Meg Coyne slapped the finish as well putting her
in good position.
The following day was Qualifier #2 which was also Flash Format as the day
before. First out was Melissa Main who was one of one 3 girls to Flash her first
route. Meg made it a few moves below that on the route but it still put her
through to Semis Finals. Bryan made it a couple moves from the top of the 18
meter wall and was still in good standings to also make the Semi Finals. Overall
the US climbing team had 27 competitors in difficulty, and 23 made it to Semi
Finals. That was a record or the US team and we are pretty sure for any team.
Saturday is the big day. Not only do they run Semi Finals and Finals all in the
same day, but they also run the Speed qualifying too. It is also the first day
of isolation. Coach Tyson and the rest of the US Team headed into isolation at
7am. The running order was presented and the coaches started warming up the kids
accordingly. The Route Setters needed to ramp it up a bit for Semi Finals.
Presenting routes that were about a full number grade harder than the
Qualifiers. Bryan fell into the 18 way tie with the rest of the boys who dropped
before the 3rd bolt. Meg made it to the 4th bolt and Melissa the 5th. This
knocked Bryan out and Meg in a 4 way tie for 8th Place (top 8 go to Finals) but
they use a count backs to qualifiers to break ties so she came out in 12th over
all. Melissa made it into finals in 3rd position. In total the US Team had 6
that made it to finals with only Austria and France having more.
The finalists were shuffled back into isolation along with the coaches and after
a 3 hour break to reset the routes, they were underway. Youth B Female & Male
and Youth A Males were the first in the order. The finals were awesome. They
were nice and long with great movement that really got the climbers off the
ground. Very well set by the International setting crew that included the USA
Climbing's own Kynan Waggoner and Mike Moelter. The boys routes finished up and
just as the Youth B Female's final competitor was falling off the finish hold,
the rain started coming down on the outdoor wall. The organizers postponed the
event hoping that the monsoon like rain would stop and the walls would dry.
Unfortunately this did not happen. After sitting in isolation for 6 hrs, the
competitors in Female & Male Junior and Female A, were told that they were not
going to get to run the final, and that their results were going to stand from
Semi Finals. In some ways this was good as Melissa was in 3rd just behind US
team member Marah Bragdon, but of course all the climbers just wanted to climb
the routes. An unfortunate end to an amazing difficulty event. On account of the
rain they also cancelled the Speed Qualifiers to run them the next day.
The next day commenced rain free with Speed Qualification. The US Team fielded
24 speed climbers. Last year we had 4 medals in speed, but this year would be
different. The routes were longer and there was no texture on the wall, making
it very different than what we were used to. The US team had 2 out of the 24
make it to finals. It was disappointing but we did get a medal out of it.
The awards finished up at about 5pm on Sunday. The US team headed out as most
were flying out the next morning. Melissa had her 3rd place trophy and medal in
hand. This is the first World Championship podium for the VERTICAL WORLD CLIMBING TEAM.
It was a wonderful time, in a wonderful place, with wonderful people. The
VERTICAL WORLD CLIMBING TEAM
will be training all year to qualify more kids for the event which is going to
be held in Sydney, Australia next summer.
Melissa Main
- 3rd
place - FYA
Meg Coyne
- 12th place
- FYA
Bryan Hopkins - 20th
place Difficulty, 15th place Speed - MYJ
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