Scottish Youth Bouldering Championships (British Bouldering Championships round 2)
On Friday 3rd of May 2013, I travelled up to Glasgow on a five hour train journey that passed surprisingly quickly. Once arrived, we went to our trusty Premier Inn, and as always, had a very good night's sleep. Registration for the competition was at 11:00, so we got a lie in.
The next day, I was feeling very psyched. I fuelled up with some bacon, then headed off to TCA.
Before the comp Tom Greenall gave the team a little pep talk in preparation to the comp.
Feeling a little less nervous, I started warming up. I then moved on to my easy problems, then looked through the harder ones. I got on my first hard one, a techy problem with poor holds. I was a little apprehensive about the crux move, a cross over dyno, as this was not my strong point. With a lot of commitment my fingers stuck the hold, and I continued to top out. A lot of stress now removed, I flashed another difficult problem, in a cave. I was happy that all that cave training had come in handy! This left me with two more hard problems, and two easy ones.
I tried a hard one, but I had the wrong beta and fell off a dyno twice. I watched Becky Whaley try the move differently, and she topped out. Doing the move her way made the problem a lot easier and I got it third attempt.
Using the right beta
I flashed the two remaining easy ones, which left me with one problem.
The bloc consisted of powerful moves. My first attempt I touched the bonus hold, but it was not enough for it to be counted. Second attempt I didn't get any further. Third attempt neither. Fourth attempt I fell off the start move. Even though I wanted to get back on it straight away I knew I wouldn't get any further. So I rested, had some recovery smoothie, and attempted the problem again. I decided I was really going to commit to the move that had previously thrown me off. I pulled hard on my heel and my arm, reached out and got the pocket with two fingers! I had gotten the bonus, I was in the final. I tried the rest of the problem, but didn't get very far.
The move I kept on falling off
We then waited for the results, had a bite to eat, a sip to drink. I had qualified in fourth place, Sidonie Graham in first, and Becky in 2nd. Westway climber Libby Gamble also qualified for the finals in 5th place. All three Westway girls in final once again, fantastic result! We knew the finals were going to be a spectacle with a supportive crowd, and fun lighting. So off to isolation we went.
During observation, we looked at our problems and they seemed nasty! After warming up, the first climbers went out. This round of BBCs being slightly more organised then the last, the finalists didn't see each other after having climbed, and couldn't share beta.
I went out for my first final bloc, read the route, and got on. I got up it quite easily, the holds were new and grippy. I was extremely sketchy during the last move, my footwork was quite shameful. I was trying to work out a static way of doing the move, as the original beta but it didn't feel comfortable. So I just took my chances and jumped, and amazingly I stuck the hold! I was quite satisfied I had flashed the first bloc.
Climbing and topping out on final bloc 1
My second final problem wasn't quite as simple. The holds were worse then expected, and the moves bigger. Nevertheless, I threw for a sloper and fell off several times. Nearing the last few seconds, I stuck the sloper, I went for the 2nd bonus hold and held it sufficiently for it to be counted. I fell off because of bad body positioning, but I was overall happy with my performance.
Sticking the sloper
My third and final boulder was the climax of my anti-style; reachy and technical moves on poor holds. I started the problem and fell off low down as the hold was worse then expected and my fingers slipped off. Now a bit more prepared I stuck the hold, reached out to a sloper, threw for a bad jug, and rocked over to a small crimp. The last move was big, and my foot popped off. I tried it again but didn't catch the jug. I took a rest and tried again at the last second. I couldn't catch the jug again, and fell off.
All the competitors were extremely close in score, and it was hard to tell who had podiumed or not. The results arrived, and showed that I had come third! I was extremely pleased with this result, and I flew back to London in a very good mood.
All photo credits to Bibi Basch.
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