Stories of
ambition

Homegrown Talent

As one of Singapore’s most hopeful climbing talents, Mark Chan has already tasted success with 3rd place in the Asian Youth Championships and a spot representing his country at the Youth Olympics in Argentina. His time is split between training and studying to become an aerospace engineer.

Natural Ability

Mark started climbing in primary school, although it wasn’t a serious interest. He regained his focus in secondary school and his talent turned heads right away. He’s has trained around the world. 

His Biggest Challenge

Mark’s experience at the Youth Olympics in Argentina has taught him some valuable lessons. However, he’s also passionate about flying for the Singapore Air Force. 

Even with so much on his plate, Mark is totally focused on achieving his ambition: representing his country at the Olympics. If he has a spare hour in the day, he’s making full use of it on a climbing wall.

India's top female climber

As a holder of 25 national trophies, a top five finisher at the World Youth Championships, and the first Indian woman in history to free climb an expert level 8a route, Siddhi is officially India’s top-ranked female climber. Already a role model for young girls across India, her ambition is to tackle the world stage.

Ambition Starts Young

When her PE teacher asked who liked to climb trees, Siddhi was the first girl to raise her hand. Encouraged to try the new climbing wall built at her school, she soon discovered a new passion. Before she knew it she was practising for hours on end every day, and her skills were getting attention. She began training professionally with a local coach and hasn’t looked back since.

Her Biggest Challenge

A tough training schedule sees Siddhi travel over three hours a day to-and-from central Mumbai where she spends alternate days between climbing practice and fitness exercise. With only two climbing walls in the entire city, she often finds herself travelling to the smaller neighbouring city of Pune to access the speed climbing facilities she needs.

Even with those challenges, Siddhi looks forward to competing for a chance to represent her country in the next Olympics. She hopes her success can inspire the next generation of female climbers in India.

Hong Kong Champion

Asia Cup boulder champion. Hong Kong lead climbing champion. Hong Kong speed climbing champion. These are just a few of the achievements of Yau Ka-chun, a full-time climber who has dedicated his life to becoming a professional athlete. Now he is totally focused on the ambition of representing his country on the world stage.

Juggling It All

Growing up in a single-parent household with two older siblings, Ka-chun often liked to climb the trees in his neighbourhood park. At age 14 he saw the climbing wall in his nearby community centre and was encouraged by a social worker to give climbing a try. As an adult, he had to juggle work with his climbing ambitions until one day, his talent was finally noticed by the government. He’s now doing what he loves as a full-time sponsored athlete.

His Biggest Challenge

As one of Hong Kong’s most celebrated climbers, there’s a lot of pressure on his shoulders. His government sponsorship is always under review and he must show results in order to keep it. But this pressure is nothing new for Ka-chun. In fact, his biggest challenge is balancing his emotions and handling the expectations that come with being a professional athlete.

Record Breaker

At the age of nine Angie Scarth-Johnson was already a world record holder. As the youngest person to have reached the expert level of grade 31 in lead, it’s a mark she still holds. Although she just turned 15, don’t let her age fool you, she’s an elite climber with a grown-up attitude.

How it all began

It all started when she fell off a tree. Despite injuring her spine, Angie was determined to get back up and go again! Even though her parents wanted her to stop, they decided that the best to do was to bring her to the local climbing gym in Canberra where she can climb safely to her heart’s content. But it soon became apparent that climbing wasn’t just a childish hobby – it was Angie’s true calling.  

Her Biggest Challenge

Her young age means a lack of experience at elite-level competitions. She needs access to world-class facilities, which are far away from her home. She spends a lot of time traveling to Europe – as they’ve got some of the world’s best facilities – and traveling back and forth to Sydney, which is two hours away by car. When she’s training for indoor competitions, she travels four hours every second day – getting to the gym early before it officially opens or staying late. 

Asian Youth Champion

Emmanuel scaled a 15-metre wall in 5.9 seconds to win the gold medal at the 2015 Asian Youth World Championships. His adult tournament debut in 2018 saw him clinch a top-20 position at the Asian Games. What’s next for this up-and-coming athlete?

Need For Speed

Growing up in fast-paced Singapore, the city has made a big impact on his speedy ways. Unaware of the fact that climbing was an actual competitive sport, when he found out, he started entering—and winning— inter-school competitions. It was then he decided to push it further and take climbing seriously.

His Biggest Challenge

To excel on the world stage, Emmanuel has to improve his overall performance. To achieve his ambition of earning Singapore’s second gold medal will require a zen-like focus. To help him go further, we sponsored the installation of the first speed wall with an auto belay system in the country.