Gao and Wang Are 2022 Provincial Speed Champions

Ontario’s speed climbers arrived in Mississauga on a blustery, frigid morning to contest the 2022 Ontario Speed Championship at Hub Climbing.

Everyone enjoyed a smooth morning of D and C category speed climbing before technical issues resulted in a pause during the afternoon practice for the B, A, Jr, and Senior athletes. The rest of the event was judged using stopwatches and watchful volunteers.

Ethan Wyett led the Senior qualifiers with a scorching 4.92 seconds on the 10m wall, but missed the buzzer in quarterfinals. Owen Clouston put up the best times in quarterfinals and semifinals to lock a spot in the gold medal race, but ended in second after Matthew Wang beat him by half a second with a 6.04s. Aden Rajan rounded out the men’s podium.

The small women’s Senior field of 4 Youth A-aged climbers started off with both Reena Gao and Sophie DiCiacca winning their respective semifinals with identical 8.40s times, setting up a tight gold medal race. Both women improved their times in the final, but Reena dropped the hammer to finish in 7.10s - only slightly slower than her impressive 6.99s in qualifiers. Maggey Arghittu cruised the small final to earn the bronze.

Men
1. Matthew Wang
2. Owen Clouston
3. Aden Rajan

Women
1. Reena Gao
2. Sophie DiCiacca
3. Maggey Arghittu

Thanks to Hub Climbing for hosting the event, and to the volunteers who jumped in to operate stopwatches and finish the event successfully.

For complete competition results, visit www.compseason.com.