Alex Puccio won her 11th national bouldering title at the USA Climbing open championship Saturday in Salt Lake City.
The podium was a duplicate of last year’s: Puccio, 28, flanked by Ashima Shiraishi of New York City and Brooke Raboutou of Boulder, Colo., both 16.
On the men’s side, Nathaniel Coleman, 21, won his third straight championship, followed by Sean Bailey, 21, and Drew Ruana, 18, both of Seattle. All three men reached the top of all four finals problems, but — as he did last year — Coleman completed them all on his first try to take the gold medal.
Coleman, of Salt Lake City, was cheered on by a hometown crowd at the Salt Palace. Puccio, originally from Texas, has been living in Boulder, Colo.
The two previous rounds of competition at the two-day event had winnowed out some top contenders. Among those who failed to make the finals cut were last year’s silver medalist, Kai Lightner, 18, and nine-time national bouldering champion Daniel Woods, 28.
Climbers with Bay Area ties who made the top 20 are:
- 6th place, Carlo Traversi, 29, of Santa Rosa.
- 7th place, Solomon Barth, 20, a Stanford student from Collegeville, Pa.
- 15th place, Keenan Takahashi, 25, who grew up in Davis and graduated from UC Santa Cruz.
- 15th place, Katie Lamb, 20, a Stanford student from Lexington, Mass.
- 17th place, Cloe Coscoy, 16, of El Cerrito.
On Feb. 9-11, the Salt Palace will host the U.S. bouldering youth championship, drawing about 500 climbers age 19 and under.
In bouldering, climbers compete on routes (“problems”) up to about 20 feet tall, without ropes or other devices to prevent falls. They have a set amount of time — usually four or five minutes — to attempt to reach the top of a problem. The winner is the one who gets highest on the problem in the fewest attempts.
Climbing will be an Olympic event at the 2020 games in Tokyo. The combined format will comprise bouldering, sport climbing (taller routes, using a rope) and speed climbing.
