Čopar youth European champion

Čopar youth European champion, Buckley runner-up, Rekar third.

Current youth world champion Sara Čopar has demonstrated her dominance in lead climbing at the recent European Youth Championships in Helsinki, adding the European crown to her accolades. The success of the Slovenian youth national team in sport climbing was complemented by Jennifer Buckley with silver and Rosa Rekar with bronze medals. Both also stepped onto the podium in the overall European Cup lead standings - Rekar as the winner among youth females and Buckley as third among cadets.

Helsinki hosted the European Youth Lead Climbing Championships on 15 and 16 September, while the bouldering and speed events were in June in Germany. The Finnish event concluded the season for younger competitors, and the Slovenian national team excelled again with five finalists and three podium finishes, second overall in the championships - first in the girls' competition, seventh in the boys'.

Sara Čopar (ŠPO PD Celje Matica) shone again, who became world champion in lead on 21 August in Seoul, and just under a month later won the youth European title in her flagship discipline among youth females (U20). "If I'm honest, I'm not entirely satisfied with my climbing at this championship. On qualification day I didn't feel my best, somehow there wasn't that right energy before the competition. I also felt a bit tired, as I had a long season behind me. For the next day, I prepared my head better for the competition and climbed the semi-final route the best. The final route unfortunately didn't let me. We weren't up to the difficult section halfway up the wall. I was a bit confused, but in the end I showed just enough for the win," summed up the 18-year-old from Lašče and happily added: "Of course, I couldn't wish for a better end to this youth season. I didn't have this title yet, so it really was the icing on the cake. But I have to thank all the coaches above all for all the patience and support that I really needed throughout the season." Čopar also delivered an excellent performance in the senior category at the recent World Cup in Koper, where she finished tenth, and she is also the youth world runner-up in bouldering.

Joining her on the podium was Rosa Rekar (PK FA), who celebrated bronze in the U20 category, with Spaniard Iziar Martinez Almendros second. "I'm very satisfied with this season, as the progress from last year is huge and I finally managed to deliver the performance I wanted at most competitions. I also gained a lot of experience in both climbing and mental preparation. Besides the experience, this season gave me a lot of motivation for the future," said the 17-year-old from Žirovnica, proud of her series of excellent achievements this year: "I'm very proud of the medal from the European Championships, even though I didn't climb as I wanted. After the competition, I was a bit disappointed, although it's a result I wouldn't have thought possible last year. I'm also proud of the overall win in the youth European Cup and second place in the senior European Cup. Especially my semi-final climb in Žilina, which was my first senior competition, as I really managed to climb it and enjoy the route there. I also competed for the first time at the World Cup in Koper. I'm very grateful for the opportunity to perform in front of the home crowd at such an important event." Rekar climbed in the semi-finals in Koper and finished 25th.

In the cadet females (U18), Slovenian success with European silver was complemented by 16-year-old Jennifer Buckley (Društvo za razvoj plezalne kulture). "This season was by far the most successful so far in terms of results and progress. I'm very happy with all the exceptionally good and also bad results, as each individual competition gave me an experience after which I was a better competitor," said the satisfied young Slovenian climber who lives in Switzerland, not only the youth European runner-up in lead but also youth world runner-up in bouldering. Noe Looser from Switzerland won in Helsinki, with Polish climber Maja Oleksy third.

In addition to the excellent girls, Slovenia also had two finalists among youth males (U20), with Timotej Romšak sixth and Luka Jerman eighth. In the U20 category, Jaka Jaki was 10th, Lovro Črep 14th, Liza Novak 23rd. In cadets (U18), Gorazd Jurekovič finished 10th, Lana Gorič 15th, Zala Mlakar Starič 16th, Tinka Rakar 20th and Svit Knez 32nd. Among younger girls (U16), Neja Isak was 14th.

The European Championships also counted as the final event of this year's European Cup in lead, so awards in the overall standings were presented in Helsinki: Rosa Rekar is the overall winner among youth females, Jennifer Buckley third among cadets, and among the top ten also: cadets Gorazd Jurekovič fifth and Zala Mlakar Starič sixth, youth male Timotej Romšak sixth and older boy Lan Čreslovnik seventh. In the European Nations Cup, the Slovenian youth team under selector Ajda Remškar took third place (girls second overall, boys fifth).

"It's nice to end the season with a top competition. The Championships in Helsinki were organisationally at a very high level and I hope that the youth team will have more such good events in the future. We brought home the full set of medals, and at the same time we climbed really nice placements in the overall standings, both individually and as a team. Above all, the girls keep proving they are at the very top of European and world youth level, motivating each other and improving through mutual competition. For next season, we will try to focus more on lead earlier, so that results are as good as possible already at the Cup, while of course timing form for championships and maintaining excellent team atmosphere," drew a line under this season selector Ajda Remškar, whose right-hand people are coaches Klemen Kejžar, Dominik Fon, Miha Hribar, Maja Štremfelj and Mina Markovič.