Author: scvvpres

Victoria continues to soar with two Victorians pushing the limits at the elite level.  Campbell Harrison and Oceana Mackenzie have had an excellent year representing Australia both finishing with the highest Australian combined rank at the recent IFSC World Championships.

To add to their stellar year, both Harrison and Mackenzie have been selected to represent Australia at the World Beach Games being held in Doha, Qatar from 12 – 16 October, 2019. The pair will be participating in bouldering on 13 October and will be supported by National Boulder Coach Will Hammersla – another Victorian!

To read more from the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC), click here.

The World Beach Games will include 14 sports with more than 1200 athletes from around the globe competing.  The Australian team will have representation in Beach Volleyball, Karate, Sailing, Swimming, Sport Climbing, Beach Handball and Water Skiing.

September has been crammed with Boulder State Titles around Australia including our very own!

Starting in NSW/ACT on Saturday 7 September, 2019 two youth athletes made the trip to NSW to compete: Sam Gullifer who finished 4th in Youth A Male and Maya Stasiuk finishing 1st in Youth C Female. The next State Titles was the Open Boulder Titles held in QLD on Saturday 14 September which did not have representation from Victoria on this occasion.

Last weekend was the Victorian State Titles which board member Yvette Harrison shared with us:

“The Victorian State Titles were held on Saturday with over 100 climbers competing at Northside Boulders Brunswick. From the littlest tackers to the older masters category everyone had a great day thanks to the great setting from our interstate head setter Emma Horan and her team.

The youth categories saw all the gyms represented on the podium and we thank the interstate competitors for coming to participate and get some competition experience up their sleeves and perhaps catch a random prize from our awesome sponsors: Climbing meta, Roctic Climbing, ChalkUp Climbing, Sea to Summit Distribution Australia, Black Diamond, Carman’s Kitchen and Tokyo Powder Industries.

The Opens did not disappoint through finals with plenty of excitement from all the athletes. Top Victorian athletes were Oceana Mackenzie 1st, Sarah Davies 2nd and Grace Crowley 3rd for Open A Female. And in Open A Male: Campbell Harrison 1st, Ned Middlehurst 2nd and Nick Churchill 3rd.

To view full results, click here.

Thank you again to our volunteers. Without you all these events cannot run as smoothly as they do. Thank you to Northside for hosting this event, your generosity is much appreciated and thank you to our sponsors for your generous prize donations.”

– Yvette Harrison, Sport Climbing Victoria Board Member

And to cap off the month Tasmania will be holding the final states of the month from 27 – 28 September, 2019.  Good luck to all the athletes!

The Youth Championships wrapped up last month on 31 August, 2019 in Arco, Italy.

Our Victorian athletes fought hard with Ned Middlehurst coming 57th in Junior Male Boulder; Oliver Burch finished 65th in Youth A Male Speed with a time of 13.68seconds and Mathew Austin (also Youth A Male) set a new male Australian speed record of 8.124seconds which lasted a day, when QLD athlete Sam Lavender pipped Austin at the post with a new male Australian record of 8.111seconds.

All eyes were on Angie Scarth-Johnson from NSW who put on a strong performance for the green and gold.  In lead Scarth-Johnson finished in 10th and in boulder made it all the way to finals with a final place of 4th in a nail-biter that came down to waiting to see how the second last athlete performed to decide if she would make the podium! Victorians flocked to Urban Climb – Collingwood to watch the young gun compete. Scarth-Johnson finished with a combined score of 5th.

Congratulations to all the Youth athletes in their amazing performances!

For full results, click here.

The IFSC World Youth Championships are on now! Tune in to the IFSC you tube channel to catch all the semi final and finals action as athletes from across Australia compete against the worlds best youth athletes. The championships are running from 22 – 31 August, 2019 in Arco, Italy.

Australia has once again sent a large team with 24 members representing the green and gold:

Junior Annabelle Cleary Abby Manning Ned Middlehurst Sam Lavender Ryan Sklenica Jesse Ruffini Callum Banks

Youth A Jordyn Damasco Ella Easton Leah Jeffries Maxim Pare Angus Simpson Aaron Matted Oliver Burch Finn McCallum-Packham Mathew Austin

Youth B Angie Scarth-Johnson Ellisa Andres Mia Weeda Ashley Brooks Joshua Mennell Hugo Hornshaw Marley Farquharson Leyroy Harley

With a smaller than usual Victorian representation the three Victorians are set to compete later this week.  Ned Middlehurst will compete in boulder and speed while Mathew Austin and Oliver Burch will be competing in the speed event. Make sure you get behind them and cheer them on from home!

It was exciting to see NSW athlete Angie Scarth-Johnson reach semi-finals earlier this week.  Scarth-Johnson put in a fantastic effort finishing 10th overall in lead – missing finals by a mere 2 places.  With results like these Scarth-Johnson is a contender to keep an eye on.

Good luck to all the athletes!

The 2019 IFSC World Championships were held earlier this month over a mammoth 11 days from 11 – 21 August, 2019 in Hachioji, Japan.  As this was an Olympic selection event, more than just the podiums were on the line.  The top 7 from the combined event would receive a provisional invite to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games to represent their country.

Competitors stamina was put to the ultimate test as they competed in all disciplines with minimal rest days in between.  For the top 20 athletes there was a total of 7 climbing days of the 11 day event.  Meanwhile, spectators were introduced to the Olympic format and what to expect at Tokyo 2020.

Australia sent a large team with 12 athletes representing their country.  Congratulations to all our athletes: Ben Abel, Grace Crowley, Alexander Cvetkovski, Anna Davey, Thomas Farrell, Campbell Harrison, Sam Lavender, Oceana Mackenzie, Tiffany Melius, Tom O’Halloran, Roxy Perry and Lucy Stirling.

For full results, click here.

Our three Victorian athletes Grace Crowley, Campbell Harrison and Oceana Mackenzie all had an excellent competition.  On the speed wall Crowley set a new PB of 12.24seconds as her training continues to drive her results.  Mackenzie also performed on the speed wall setting the new Australian Female record of 9.12seconds.

For the combined format, which included Harrison and Mackenzie, the Victorians performed superbly.  Harrison placed 60th overall and Mackenzie placed 29th overall – only nine places from making the combined qualifications – making them the highest ranked Australian athletes.

During the combined event, tensions were high as controversy happened throughout the competition.  There were two instances where athletes stepped on bolts in the lead event, ultimately leading to Adam Ondra not making it through to finals. There was further controversy as the judging was appealed over Janja Garnbret’s score, which in the end was denied and her score remained unchanged. Then Alexander Megos had to leave the competition early, injuring his finger on the first boulder problem of finals.

For full combined results, click here.

The home Japanese team came prepared having four athletes in the finals for both male and female categories.  Due to the Olympic qualification rules that state only two athletes from each country will receive an invitation to the Olympics, two additional athletes outside of the top 7 were offered a place meaning athletes down to 9th place were offered a provisional place.

To view the athletes who have provisionally received an Olympic invitation, click here.

This was just the first of a series of qualifying events leading up to Tokyo 2020 with the next event set to occur from 28 November – 1 December 2019 in Toulouse France.  This event will see the 6 highest placed athletes per gender offered a place if they haven’t already qualified and they are within maximum quota’s.

For Australia, the next event to qualify after this will be the Oceania Championships held in the first half of 2020 in Sydney, NSW.

To view the qualification system and events, click here.

If you would like to sponsor one of our athletes please get in contact with us at contact@sportclimbingvictoria.com.au.

The Victorian State Boulder Titles 2019 are here.

We look forward to hosting you on Saturday 21 September, 2019 at Northside Boulders Brunswick.

Athlete Registration available here.

To volunteer for the event, click here.

 

 

Lead

The international lead season started earlier this month with the usual Victorian suspects representing Australia.  Campbell Harrison started his campaign in Villars, Switzerland from 4-6 July, followed by Chamonix, France a week later from 11-13 July and finally in Briançon, France from 19-20 July.  Oceana Mackenzie joined Harrison in France at both the Chamonix and Briançon events.

Both athletes have demonstrated tremendous improvements over recent years with their continued efforts towards Tokyo 2020. Harrison placed 62^nd in Villars, 59^th in Chamonix and completed the campaign coming 37^th in Briançon narrowly missing semi-finals by just one move.  Mackenzie came 53^rd in Chamonix and 49^th in Briançon.

Both athletes will continue training in Japan ahead of the World Championships as they prepare to make their Olympic dreams come true.

If you wish to sponsor these athletes ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games please contact us at contact@sportclimbingvictoria.com.au

 

What’s coming up next?

In August, two of the biggest climbing events of the year will happen with the IFSC World Championships for the adults in Japan from 11-21 August, 2019 and the Youth World Championships for the junior athletes from 22-31 August, 2019 in Arco, Italy.

Representing Australia from Victoria at the World Championships will be:

• Grace Crowley – Speed
• Campbell Harrison – All disciplines
• Oceana Mackenzie – All disciplines
• Ned Middlehurst – All disciplines

And at the Youth World Championships:

• Matt Austin – Youth A Speed
• Oliver Burch – Youth A Speed
• Ned Middlehurst – Junior Speed and Boulder

To see the full Australian team for the Youth World Championships, click here.
To see the full Australian team for the World Championships, click here.

Good luck to all the competitors in their respective World Championships and a special mention to Ned Middlehurst who is competing in both events, one directly after the other.

The Australian state bouldering season has begun with the WA State Bouldering Titles held from 20-21 July, 2019.  Victoria was represented by Daniel Humphreys who was the only Victorian athlete to compete.  Humphreys competed in both Juniors and Open A coming 3^rd  and 24^th  respectively.

For full results, click here.

There will be a breather of state level competitions in August while the World Championships and the Youth World Championships are being held to allow international competitors to compete in their respective state titles.

The state bouldering season will continue in September with the following competitions lined up:

• 7-8 September – NSW/ACT State Boulder Titles
• 14-15 September – QLD State Boulder Titles
• 21 September – Victorian State Boulder Titles
• 27-28 September – Tasmanian State Boulder Titles

Watch this space for all competition results and to see how your favourite competitors are doing.

In the last month there has been a spree of world cup competitions including two speed competitions in which our very own Oceana Mackenzie, Grace Crowley and Campbell Harrison competed in.

First stop was Villars, Switzerland held from 4-6 July, 2019 followed by Chamonix, France a week later from 11-13 July, 2019.

Crowley and Harrison have continued to improve getting faster with each competition with Harrison setting a new personal best on the international speed route.

Mackenzie has continued to impress on the international stage beating her own record and setting the new Australian female speed record of 9.532seconds.  The male record was also reset by NSW climber Ben Abel who ran a time of 8.567seconds narrowly beating Victorian Ned Middlehurst who previously held the record.

We will continue to see speed records being smashed as Australian climbers prepare for the Olympic Games scheduled for Tokyo 2020.  Climbing hopefuls will need to compete in all three disciplines (boulder, speed, lead) in the games which has lead to an increase of competitors competing in speed.

Good luck to all those with the Olympic dream!

If you wish to sponsor a Victorian athlete ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games please contact us at contact@sportclimbingvictoria.com.au .