Saint-Augustin A 2025

Ten rounds of competition across six disciplines packed the schedule on May 24, 2025, as 36 competitors converged on Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, Quebec, Canada. The organizers, delegates, and dedicated volunteers at the Centre communautaire multifonctionnel secteur Est kept the entire day operating like clockwork. Running a full slate of events in a single day demands relentless judging, scrambling, and schedule coordination. Thanks to the tireless crew behind the scorecards, every solver had a seamless platform to put up their best efforts.

This edition of Saint-Augustin A 2025 showcased the sheer depth of speedcubing talent in the region, bringing local veterans and newcomers together for a focused day of racing. The smooth staging ensured that competitors moved briskly from warm-up tables to the competition stations across a variety of puzzle shapes and formats. Volunteers handled the flow of cubes effortlessly, providing the foundation for fast marks and tight round margins throughout the program.

The 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube drew a competitive lineup of 33 solvers through two rounds of play, leading to an impressive display at the top of the standings. Darshan Bhavanasi of India seized first place with a 7.63 second final average, boosted by the day's best single of 6.98 seconds. William Lavoie followed in second position with an average of 9.53, while Mathieu Camire captured third on the podium with a 10.34 average. The official 3x3 results demonstrated sharp execution across both rounds.

In the 2x2x2 Cube event, William Lavoie delivered a masterclass in sprinting speed across a single round featuring 33 competitors. Lavoie secured victory with a sensational winning average of 1.32 seconds, anchored by a blistering 1.08 single. Darshan Bhavanasi claimed second place with an average of 2.45, while Remi Chretien took third with a 2.62 mark. The brisk event gave the field little room for error as competitors pushed their turn speeds to the absolute limit.

The side events provided varied challenges throughout the venue. In Clock, Darshan Bhavanasi collected another victory with a winning average of 5.37 seconds, while Hieu Thanh Pham finished second at 8.15 and Remi Chretien placed third with 8.67. Bhavanasi also conquered the Pyraminx field of 28 entrants, recording a 2.99 average in the final round to finish ahead of William Lavoie at 4.60 and Remi Chretien at 5.99. The precision required on specialized hardware produced tight contests across every round.

Away from the top of the standings, the heart of this WCA competition belonged to competitors hitting major milestones across the board. Thomas Betancur-Garcia authored one of the biggest leaps of the meet by slicing his 3x3x3 personal best to 21.88 seconds, an improvement of 52.5 percent, while also logging his first ever attempt at Clock with a time of 19.80. Samuel Chapdelaine dropped his Pyraminx mark to 5.82 seconds, running 47.1 percent faster than his prior standard, in addition to trying Skewb for the first time with a 13.28 single. Behnoud Kheiri shaved 51.9 percent off his Pyraminx best to hit 4.73 seconds, while Xavier Drolet cut his 3x3x3 mark by 38.2 percent down to 16.46 seconds.

New experiences defined the day for many others taking part in Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures. Nasri Aboutanos recorded a 50.8 percent improvement in 2x2x2 to reach 11.13 seconds alongside a first ever attempt at 3x3x3 of 58.84 seconds. Alexis Wild-Popa took on four events, logging an inaugural Skewb mark of 35.31 and a first Pyraminx solve of 10.44. David Lavoie completed his first speed cubing event appearance by tackling four disciplines, highlighted by an initial 2x2x2 single of 2.93 seconds. Samuel Fortier also made his tournament debut, earning a 21st place finish in 2x2x2 with a debut time of 8.51 seconds.

The specialized Skewb event saw William Lavoie capture the top step of the podium with a winning average of 4.88 seconds, narrowly edging Darshan Bhavanasi at 5.01 and Remi Chretien at 5.75. In 3x3x3 Blindfolded, where memorisation and flawless spatial execution are essential, Hieu Thanh Pham took first place with a single of 1:07.21, followed by Felix Gaudet at 2:33.75 and Cyrille Beauchesne at 3:59.77.

By the close of Saint-Augustin A 2025, the podium table reflected 13 medals for Canadian competitors and five for India across six varied events. Behind every fast time stood the dedicated volunteers, scorekeepers, and organizers who kept the day on schedule from first scramble to final tally. As the cubing competition wrapped up, the gathering in Quebec proved how teamwork behind the scenes makes great racing possible on the stage.