GUIYANG, China, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- China swept the U17 women's boulder podium at the 2026 Asian Youth Climbing Championships here on Saturday, with Tan Youtian winning gold ahead of teammates Li Meini and Lu Yijing.
The trio, all born in the 2010s and classmates at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Secondary School in Zhongshan, south China's Guangdong Province, have emerged as three of China's most promising young female climbers.
Tan, born in 2011, claimed a silver medal in the U17 women's boulder event at the World Youth Championships in July, marking her first world youth medal on her debut. She carried that momentum to the Asian stage, where she was the only female climber to complete all four boulders in Saturday's final, finishing with 99.6 points to take gold.
Li, a two-time world youth champion in women's boulder, solved three of the four problems in Saturday's final and earned silver with 84.8 points, narrowly edging Lu by just 0.2 points on the countback based on attempts.
In the U17 men's boulder competition, Indonesia's Ardana Cikal Damarwulan won gold, Japan's Takumi Nakayama took silver and South Korea's Choi Jung-yoon claimed bronze. ■
