The second half of the IFSC Climbing World Championships in Bern saw a new Australian Men's Speed record set by Hayden Barton and a semi finals placing for Oceania Mackenzie in the new combined Boulder & Lead Olympic format event.
Image: Lena Drapella
NSWIS athlete Hayden Barton finished 57th in Speed with a time of 6.22, setting a new Australian Men's Speed record. The previous record of 6.89 was held by Tokyo 2020 Olympian Tom O'Halloran, and the Oceania Continental Record of 5.83 is held by NZ climber Julian David. Aaron Mattes and Grace Crowley also competed in Speed, finishing 72nd and 58th in the Men and Women's events respectively.
Image: Jan Virt
At the conclusion of the Boulder and Lead World Championship events, all athletes who competed in both disciplines received a combined score calculated from their results. The top twenty climbers per gender took to the walls again in the new Olympic format for Paris 2024, with three qualification spots on offer in the final round. After narrowly missing out on Boulder finals after finishing 7th, VIS athlete Oceania Mackenzie qualified for the combined semi final where she finished in 16th place. In the Men's combined rankings, Campbell Harrison finished 53rd, Dylan Parks was 71st and WAIS athlete Maxim Pare was 72nd.
Image: Lena Drapella
The new combined format has been introduced for Paris 2024 with the split of Speed into a separate event and a total of four gold medals for sport climbing on offer. The scoring system performance based, with the final score of an athlete being the sum of points collected in Boulder and Lead (maximum of 100 points in each). Each Boulder problem is worth a maximum of 25 points, broken down into a TOP (25 points), Highest Zone (10 points) or Lowest Zone (5 points). The top 40 moves on the Lead route are scored, with the top 10 moves worth 4 points, the next 10 worth 3 points, the next 10 worth 2 points and then the bottom 10 worth 1 point.
Image: Vladek Zumr
Sport Climbing Australia is grateful to have received support from Airbnb through the Australian Olympic Committee to provide a team hub for World Championship Teams. The Airbnb property allowed the athletes to relax after the demands of competition, wind down with post-training stretches, have a dedicated space for National Physiotherapist Katie Kaminsky to provide treatment, enjoy team dinners cooked in the fully equipped kitchen and create a shared team AUS experience with other athletes, performance staff and supporters.
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