Cowichan Valley sport climbers Aidan and Brennan Doyle keep moving up.
Aidan, 15, won the national overall championship in Montreal last month, and has been named to the Canadian national team for all three disciplines: speed, lead and bouldering, with the opportunity to represent Canada at the World Youth Championships in Austria and the Pan Am Championships in Montreal later this year.
Aidan was the B.C. provincial champion overall and in each of the three disciplines, then at nationals won silver in speed 10m. He also placed seventh in youth bouldering for 2017 and 13th in open men’s bouldering, and won the national championship in lead for 2017, taking the overall national championship for his age group.
Aidan previously represented Canada at the 2016 World Youth Championships in Guangzhou, China last November in the speed and lead disciplines. He finished 2016 ranked 20th in the world for speed and 32nd for lead.
His younger brother, Brennan, meanwhile, was named to the speed national team thanks to a silver medal at nationals with a chance at also making the lead team because of his fourth-place finish in his age group at nationals. He may also get an exemption after missing nearly the entire season with an injury that will allow him to represent Canada in all three disciplines at Worlds and Pan Ams.
Brennan was the provincial speed champion for his age group this year, and won the national championship in both speed and lead last year.
Another Cowichan climber, Jack Whitney, also qualified for the national championships by placing third in the youth C difficulty/rope competition at provincials.
