The second competition day at Parque Cerrillo opened with the women’s Boulder & Lead semi-final round, selecting the top eight athletes qualifying for the final, where they will be competing for both the Pan American Games title and Olympic quota place to Paris 2024.
USA’s Brooke Raboutou and Natalia Grossman respectively concluded in first and second place, both totalising 76.1 points in the Lead phase, and only being separated by 0.1 points in the Boulder one, where both went close to the perfect score – 99.9 for Raboutou, 99.8 for Grossman.
A third US climber – Anastasia Sanders – finished in fourth place with 115.1 points.
“We have three very strong athletes in both finals now. We are going to keep it very simple,” said Josh Larson, head coach of the USA Climbing team. “We’re going to keep it down to the basics, just you against the wall. I know those are kind of cheesy things to remind people, but it really is like this. There is nobody else but you on the wall. We have been climbing together all season, so there will be nothing different.”
Tokyo 2020 Olympian Alannah Yip jumped into the top three thanks to another almost-perfect performance in the Boulder phase – where she scored 99.7 points – to which she added 48.1 in the Lead one, for a total of 147.8.
Yip said: “I tried not to have expectations going into the round, my goal was solely to make the final, because I know that excluding countback the results of the semi-final don’t count, and it’s hard to tie in this format.
“I focused on enjoying myself, enjoying all the boulders, climbing free, finding the flow on the route, and I was able to do all those things and I’m very happy.
“We have an amazing atmosphere in the team, a great group of athletes, supportive with each other. We have been spending time together pretty much non-stop here in Santiago, and it felt really good to be working as a team.”
Competing in from of her home crowd, Chilean climber Alejandra Contreras secured a spot in the final round with 102.9 points, and finishing fifth.
“It’s been pretty amazing to compete in front of my home crowd,” said Contreras. “I was feeling the whole vibe, people cheering and giving me motivation. That helped me doing my job, it could have been a little better, but I’m really looking forward to competing on Tuesday.
“Last night I could not be at the venue to support my sister Carmen, because I had to compete this morning, so I watched the competition on television. She climbed with confidence and I’m so happy for her result!”
Completing the group of qualified athletes, Canada’s Indiana Chapman took sixth place with 94.4 points, while Argentina’s Valentina Aguado and Rebecca Frangos – also representing Canada – placed tied in seventh with 90.4 points.
For the full results of the women’s Boulder & Lead semi-final
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Sport Climbing competitions at the Pan American Games will continue tonight with the men’s Speed event, kicking off at 19:00 (UTC-3:00) and featuring both qualification and final. The full schedule is available on theevent page of Santiago 2023. All competitions at the Pan American Games will be streaming on the Panam Sports channels .Updates and news about the Climbing competitions will be available on the official website of the event, on the IFSC website , and on the Federation digital channels: Facebook , Instagram , X , LinkedIn , and exclusively for the Chinese audience, Douyin and Weibo .
Brooke Raboutou of the USA comeptes in the women's Boulder & Lead semi-final at Santiago 2023Photo: Lena Drapella