The Climbing Youth World Championships have been held annually since 1992 under the aegis of IFSC – International Federation of Sport Climbing.
In 2001 the Speed world title was added to the Lead World Championship; the Bouldering world title made its debut in the World Championships of Arco 2015.
The athletes will compete in three categories: Under 16, Under 18 and Under 20.
Every National Federation can field 3 athletes per category, gender and discipline, in addition to the reigning World and Continental Champions.
The competitions
Lead
This is the most classic sport climbing discipline, the one that represents the essence of this sport even for non-climbers.
The athletes climb a very difficult route and try to reach the summit, the top as it is called in climbing jargon. Only the strongest climbers – or climber – manage to reach the final hold, while the others will fall secured to the safety rope.
The athletes’ performance is measured according to the highest point they have reached.
In the semi-finals and finals, the athletes climb a route they have never seen before; for this reason, they are isolated in a special area before their climb.
The time limit to climb the wall is 6 minutes.
26 athletes can qualify for the semi-finals, 8 for the final round.
If the athletes who finish on the podium have the same result, a countback is used to decide the winner – i.e. according to the results of the previous rounds – and, if still necessary, their climbing time will be taken into account.
When: qualification rounds 22nd/23rd August – semi-finals and finals 24th/25th August (depending on the category)
Boulder
This is the youngest of the sport climbing disciplines; it made its Youth World Championships debut in 2015. Bouldering is a form of climbing that is performed on small walls (known as boulders) up to 4.5 meters high and falls are protected by special bouldering mats. This discipline is particularly fascinating thanks to the intense effort in a few meters of climbing, the short competition time and the proximity to the crowd.
In Bouldering, the most important thing is to reach the final hold (to send it in climbing jargon); the final score will be determined by the number of boulders that have been sent and the number of attempts needed. If the athletes don’t reach the top, they may receive a bonus for having reached a particularly demanding intermediate hold.
Twenty athletes can qualify for the semi-finals, while only six will compete in the final.
When: qualification rounds 26th/29th August – semi-finals 27th/30th August – finals 28th/31st August ( depending on the category)
Speed
Speed is the only thing that counts in Speed Climbing. The fastest athlete who climbs a slightly overhanging IFSC certified 15m high wall will be the World Champion. In the qualification rounds the athletes race against the clock to get one of the sixteen places of the final rounds. In the following rounds they will compete in a head-to-head sequence on two equal, parallel routes with direct elimination.
In Speed Climbing the wall and the route are the same in all the IFSC events in order to compare the results and set new world records.
The current men’s world record is held by Reza Alipourshenazandifar from Iran (5’48), while the women’s record holders are Iuliia Kaplina from Russia and Anouk Joubert from France (7 ’32).
When: qualification rounds 26th/30th August – finals 27th/31st August ( depending on the category)