Over the past two weekends, youth European Boulder athletes competed for the first rounds of the season in Curno, Italy, and Soure, Portugal.
At Curno, a record-breaking number of 419 participants competed at the first European Youth Boulder Cup for 2024. Eighteen medals were awarded, marking an incredible event.
With six groups divided into men’s and women’s, and age group categories, Curno showed great action by the next generation of climbers in Europe. Starting with the U16 women, on top of the podium was Rafael Kazbekova of Ukraine, followed by Naja Isak of Slovenia in second and Amie Lerondel from France in third. For the men, Israel dominated the podium with Or Mark and Itamar Harel taking first and second respectively, joined by Moreno Ghilardi from Switzerland winning the third medal.
The event continued with U18, where the women’s podium awarded Great Britain’s Lucy Garlick the gold, France’s Louise Yazid Puech the silver and Slovenia’s Jennifer Eucharia Buckley the bronze. On top of the men’s podium, Germany's Lucas Trandafir stood on top after a close battle with Czech Republic's Jan Stipek who finished second, followed in the third place by France's Camille Claude.
The action-packed weekend reached its peak with the U20s, with strong performances both from men’s and women’s climbers in a very difficult round and setting, showing this season is going to rise to new heights.
The men’s U20 gold medal was awarded to Israel's Yonatan Katz, alongside Germany's Yannick Nagel with silver and France's Thomas Lemagner with the bronze. Winning gold in the women's event was France’s Lily Abriat, followed by Slovakia’s Martina Buršíková and Spain’s Iziar Almendros Martínez.
Athletes from the continent also gathered for another Boulder Cup, this time in Soure a week later, again divided into six groups by age and gender.
At the U16 Cup, on top of the women’s podium stood Jakoba Rauter from Austria, with a perfect final round, with Lou Auclair from France taking second and Rafael Kazbekova from Ukraine, the winner of the week before, taking third. On the men’s podium, history was made, with an all-Israeli podium. The two winners of the previous week, Or Mark and Itamar Harel, finished second and third, with their teammate, Elyasaf Lanel, joining them on the top, taking first place.
The bronze medallist of the U18 women’s event in Curno, Jennifer Eucharia Buckley from Slovenia showed a great performance winning a second medal for the season - this time gold. Joined her with silver and bronze, two Spanish athletes Gelia Macia Martin was second and Julia Benach Zubero was third. Taking gold in the men's U18 Cup was Corentin Laporte of Belgium, followed by Adrien Gsell of France taking silver and Camille Claud taking home the bronze medal.
The peak of the event in Soure came with the Juniors Cup (U20), again showing great performances by the talented and strong athletes. First place and winner of the competition was Anna Maria Apel of Germany, with Iziar Almendros Martínez of Spain - with her second medal in two weeks - finishing second. The third place was awarded to Martina Buršíková of Slovakia. Standing on the top of the men's podium was Guillermo Peinando Franganillo of Spain, who was joined by Ilja Auersperg of Austria in second and Tomer Yakobovitch of Israel in third.
The next European Youth Boulder Cup is scheduled for the weekend of the 4-5 May, in the well known gym and venue in Graz, Austria.
All events were streamed on the IFSC Europe Youtube Channel, which will also stream and cover European events throughout the season.
