We have a foreign winner! (of the #ABSNationals)
The American bouldering nationals were broadcast on Youtube live over the weekend and in the end it was a fascinating watch for many reasons. The format were climbs are moving non-stop, punctuated by advertising breaks seems to work well (never thought I'd be saying that about advertisements!) and full credit to LouderThanEleven and ClimbingNarc for the production and commentary respectively, watching Daniel Woods and Alex Puccio going for their 9th titles had a definite allure.
In the end it came out to have a great ending. Puccio showed she is a mile ahead of the rest of the field with phenomenal power and now a real genuine skill on slabby problems (just shows what happens when you've a good coach), and Woods was beaten to his overall win but still ended up winning the national title. Essentially, a foreigner turned up and won but as he's non-American doesn't get the National title. It's not the first time this has happened (I believe Julianne Wurm has done it before) and is all a bit strange - thankfully something that has never happened in Ireland where we just give it to whoever has won it on the day, Irish or not.
If you want to see who won, head on over to the highly entertaining read on psyched2climb, most importantly for the comments at the bottom for the enthusiastic commentary!
Enjoy.
Finals are embedded below.