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Vsion climbers ring up medals in B.C. comp

Canmore and Banff have become feared words on the youth climbing circuit, as Bow Valley climbers once again cleaned up this weekend at the nationals in Coquitlam, British Columbia. “It’s amazing.

Canmore and Banff have become feared words on the youth climbing circuit, as Bow Valley climbers once again cleaned up this weekend at the nationals in Coquitlam, British Columbia.

“It’s amazing. We have four gold medals and two silvers out of 14 climbers,” said coach Dung Nguyen, manager of Canmore’s Vsion climbing gym and national junior climbing coach. “Winning four of a possible 10 gold medals, we did really well. Bigger cities were only able to bag two golds.”

Facing 146 competitors from five different provinces, local climbers faired extremely well.

A new generation of climbers led the charge. Hunter McLaughlin and Simon Yamamoto captured gold in the U11B and 12-13B boys category respectively, winning the National Jr. Cup title for their age group.

“They worked hard and were likely inspired through the group. When the whole team trains with role models, they feel they can accomplish a lot,” said Nguyen.

They were joined by surprise winner Becca Frangos, who won the Youth B girls gold medal.

“She took the long road to win and this was the cherry on top of the sundae,” Nguyen said.

Facing fierce competition, she won by half a move in the final.

“It’s outstanding, because she needed the win to be part of the national team,” Nguyen said. “She redeemed herself from a major mistake at regionals.”

Elise Sethna won the team’s fourth gold medal, taking the Youth A Girls group, also allowing her to win the National Junior Cup Championship. Alison Vest finished second in the same age group to grab the silver medal.

National junior climbing team member Eric Sethna won the silver in the junior boys competition.

Banff put three climbers in the finals, however, they didn’t bring home the same hardware haul. Competing in their first nationals ever, Taevan Birch finished fourth in his age category to lead the team, followed by Gerald Kars, who finished fifth. Kiva Waugh made the final for the first time in her young climbing career, much to the delight of coach Chris Neve.

“Kiva was in tough, but this is a major breakthrough for her. Now it’s just a matter of taking the climbers to the next level,” Neve said.

Other top local results were posted by Manon MacKasey (ninth), Alex Fricker (fifth), Nicolai Kocher (sixth), Jaqueline Middleton (seventh), Morgan Bateman (seventh), Sara Frangos (seventh) and Zach Watson (11th).

Nyugen said the secret to Canmore’s success lies in the training.

“We train bouldering and it’s a route contest,” said Nyugen.

“The competition is furious and a lot of the wins were separated by one hold or move. The team worked hard,” Nguyen said.

Frangos, Watson and the Sethnas will now move on to the world youth championship in Austria during the last week of August.


Rocky Mountain Outlook

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