After a week and a half of travelling followed by one intensely packed competition week, the SA youth climbing team will be slowly making their way back home today. We are exceptionally proud of this year’s youth team, as all the athletes showed grit, determination, and passion in every round of the competition. Let’s take a look at some of the standout moments from across all three disciplines.
All images: ©️Richard Aspland/IFSC | IFSC Youth World Championships Helsinki 2025
Bouldering Highlights
The competition kicked off with the Under-19 bouldering, and during this round all of our athletes topped one boulder problem, with Maia Davies, and Farron Smith both getting a spectacular flash on Women’s Boulder Number 2. On the men’s side Roelf van der Merwe and John Stucken both topped Men’s Boulder Number 3, with John getting an additional zone on Men’s 5. In the Under-17 bouldering round our athletes continued to impress, with everyone getting at least one zone. Lily Andela impressed in her first international event, by getting three zones and finishing the highest in her category. This is the first time in a Youth Worlds bouldering event, that all the team SA athletes got points on the board – needless to say, I am very impressed!
Lead Highlights
Following the bouldering, the competition moved swiftly to lead. Our standout performances here, all came from athletes competing at the Youth Worlds for the very first time. In the Under-19 category, the top performances came from Maia Davies, and Chrsitopher McGowan who finished 57th and 72nd respectively. In the Under-17 men’s category, Axel Janata-Burns had the highest placement of 58th after a consistent performance on both routes. Shining and showing her determination throughout, Annelien Le Roux progressed further than any other South African athlete on a single route, and finished in 61st place. Based on the number of competitors in each age group, Annelien had the best lead ranking across the board, beating 28 other competitors in her first international competition.
Speed Highlights
In the Under-17 speed, Jemma Erdey’s best time was 11,81 seconds. Jemma’s passion for the sport even caught the attention of the IFSC, who did a feature of her on their Youtube channel. On the men’s side, Roux Wentzel ran a best time of 10,05 seconds. In the Under-19’s Chistopher McGowan ran a time of 10,39 seconds and John Stucken showed his need for speed with a best time of 7,43 seconds.
While these are the very summarised highlights across all the disciplines, if you were following along with the action, you know that all our athletes gave it their very best. With many athletes who were competing for a second time, improving on their previous performances and results. To see the full competition results, click here.
A big congratulations to all the athletes who wore green and gold this week; and an even bigger thank you to the travelling management team, Carmen Bouwer (team manager), and Nicholas Meinel (team coach) – we cannot wait to see what next year will bring!
