Avezou, Copar, Van Duysen and Kayotani win gold in Dallas

Japan has had a great start in the Youth World Championship in Dallas getting five medals including one gold by Ritsu Kayotani in the boys U-18. He and also the silver medalist, Toby Roberts from GBR, were the only youngsters doing all 14 problems, among the two + two oldest categories. Complete results

Among the oldest boys, Hannes Van Duysen from Belgium, who recently was #12 in the Lead Euro CH in Munich, won being the only won doing three boulders. "Doing World Cups I’ve had to train more and get smarter during simulations because of the level of competition. That has really motivated me to train harder and the extra training has shown." Complete results

In the girls U-18, Sara Copar won each round actually by doing at least one boulder more the all the others. In the finals, the Slovenian needed just five tries doing the four boulders. Last year she got the gold in Lead in the YWCH and this year the 17-year-old's best World Cup result is #12 in Lead. "I came here to enjoy and make it to finals, maybe the podium. I didn’t know what to expect actually. But qualification was good. Then semis was good. Then the final was crazy, it all seemed to be happening so fast. “I’m just so happy. I don’t care what is going on anywhere else, I just wanted to climb and enjoy myself and that’s what I did. Everything seemed to go to plan and now I’m so happy.” Complete results

Zélia Avezou from France, sibling to Sam who recently was #2 in the Munich ECH, did win U-20 being the only one doing all four problems and she also won each round. Zélia's oldest brother Leo has also won several events as a junior and their mother Cecile was one of the very best Speed climbers in the mid-90'ies. Complete results

The youngest boys and girls had their semi yesterday and highest up in the ranking were Augustine CHI, USA - 4T4z 5 4 and Lucy GARLICK, GBR - 4T4z 6 4. Here is the full IFSC report with more quotes.