Bend Endurance Academy climbers Walker Davis and Tristan Helmich both qualified to compete at the American Bouldering Series Youth National Championships to be held in March in Colorado Springs, CO.
The two Bend based climbers competed this past weekend at the ABS Divisionals Championships held at ClubSport in Tigard OR. The dual round competition was held Sat and Sun and included the top 20+ climbers in each age category from throughout the west who had qualified in their respective regions.
Both climbers were in 5th place after day one qualifiers which advanced them to the finals round. “I knew I was going to have to try hard on day two. I had to step it up and not make any mistakes like I did on day one.” said Davis after his qualifier round. Davis climbed strong on his final boulder problems flashing the first two and topping his third on his second attempt. His performance in finals placed him on the podium in third place in the Male Youth B category.
Helmich climbed really well in finals after a strong qualifying round and had this to say after finishing his last route in finals; “The mental side of climbing was obvious in qualifiers, I knew I was just as strong as the rest of the field, I just needed to be just as smart too." Helmich climbed smart and strong in finals flashing all three of his routes.
This will be the fourth invite to ABS Youth Nationals for Davis and the third for Helmich. Both climbers have performed well at this level previously and have been past members of the US team.
Full results: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29395333/FINALS_RESULTS-%20Division-1DivisionalChampionship_2013-01-13.pdf