Laval EYC

So this has taken me ridiclousy long to write… my only excuse is that i have been sooo busy!

Last month, I (along with Alex, Jen, William and Pete) joined the rest of the GB junior boulder team to compete in my first international boulder comp. I was so psyched for this comp and had been counting down the days till we'd finally arrive in Laval.

After a day of travelling, and another full of throwing socks, jabbing with spoons and "pegging" people it was time to get serious and compete. I remember having the same feeling as I did before my first ever international (EYC Edinburgh 3 years ago now!!)… but this time I felt more pressure. I guess I just put the pressure on myself - I knew it was my first one and nobody had any expectations for me but I really just wanted to prove myself… I reckon it was the most nervous I've ever been!

We got to the wall pretty early so we could warm up before it all got a bit too busy and stressful. A quick confidence booster from Tom and I was ready to climb. We had 8 blocs… all of which I had no idea whether they were easy or not - only little arrows on my score card indicating a general opinion on which was nails and which wasn't. I think it is really hard to tell how hard a bloc will be in the international comps… I pulled onto one expecting it to be really hard but matching the top hold I decided it wasn't too bad. However, there were ones that shocked me - they were MUCH harder than they looked!

After a mentally challenging qualification round, I finished with 4 tops in 7 and 6 bonuses in 8 leaving me with a finishing position of 11th. I was relatively pleased with my performances on specific blocs but was slightly disappointed. It was a good experience and I was able to see the gap between myself and the athletes who just bouldered.

Evening came and it was time for finals… we were all super super pumped for Nath who had qualified in 5th place. To sum it up, after about an hour of biting nails and screaming our heads off, history was made - Nath won!! The atmosphere was incredible and GB was so proud of Nath.

To top off an even better weekend, William and Pete both made finals the next day! And after another final we got our SECOND podium with Will getting 3rd!! Also a great 5th place for Pete!! I was so proud to be part of the GB junior bouldering team and the inspiring performances of my team mates have encouraged me to work hard.

Expect big things next season. As they say, watch this space.

Norway EYC and the BLCCs

Overall European Ranking Podium

PART 1:

Way back at the beginning of September, a slightly larger than normal team from GB travelled out to Stavanger, Norway for an EYC. We spent the first two days exploring the beautiful town and chilling with the Swiss team.

Finally comp day arrived and I was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, this EYC round had fewer competitors than previous rounds. However, this didn't make the competition any less impressive or hard to get good results.

After a hard day of qualifications, all the team made the finals!! I think this was the first time ever and everyone was extremely happy.
The next day brought finals. It was unusual for everyone to have breakfast, go to the wall and warm up together on finals day... But it was great to have everyone supporting each other and dominating the warm up wall. My warm up wast thorough - unlike my usual light warm up - as

Me and Will!

the wall was actually in a ice rink! I went out to view and everything looked alright up until a mini overhang... there was a double dyno! I was pretty nervous about it.

Everything was going well on the route up until... the double dyno. I set myself up well and got enough height to get to the holds but just didn't quite hook my hand around the left hold and so I came spinning down extremely disappointed.

I was really really angry and upset with my performance but my mood completely changed when I found out that my team member William Bosi had not only topped the route (he didn't drop a thing all weekend!!) but come second due to time and second in the overall rankings! I was so happy for him as I know how hard he's worked and how much these competitions mean to him.

To make the weekend even better it turned out i'd come 3rd in the overall European and world rankings :)




PART 2:

A couple of weekends ago I was at the new Awesome Walls Sheffield for the junior and finally senior BLCCs. I was reaaaaally excited for this competition as it was the first time I was and old enough to compete in the senior category.

Junior Route 2, by Peter Wuensche 

The Saturday was dedicated to the juniors. I climbed well on my first route which I found quite easy. However I could definitely feel the step up for the second route which was steady until near the top where it suddenly got a lot more droppable! I didn't climb so well on this route but fortunately I climbed well enough so that I got the high point for my category and qualified in first. Our final route was the same as the youth a and junior boys qualification route 2 but I hadn't really looked at it. I climbed pretty smoothly up until a slightly sketchy vert section. I powered through and made it onto the side of the roof section. I was near the top and decided to just go for it without any hesitation. I reached the head wall, 3 moves before the top before falling. I had smashed a heel up and tried to pull up to the tiny crimp but was too pumped to get enough height. I came down and found out that I had won by quite a bit which was a nice surprise :) This made me even more psyched for the seniors.

Junior Finals, by Peter Wuensche

Unfortunately, only 2 adults joined the many Youth A and Junior girls in the senior category the next day. Nonetheless, the field was pretty large and I was up against many of my junior team members. I topped both qualification routes along with 4 others and headed straight into the finals in joint 1st. I was finally able to climb on the main wall and into the roof!!! I'd been waiting for this for a long time! I was put 3rd and did a fairly minimal warm up as I had virtually no skin left. I pulled on expecting to come off at the tricky looking volume in the roof but to my surprise I stuck the move and kept on going till I reached a massive double jug in the roof. I shook out for quite a while and remember feeling very hot and red faced due to the crazy angle of the roof. I kept on pulling all the way up onto the head wall and got the final clip before the top. It was quite a big run out but I snaked my way up to the penultimate hold. One small jump later and I was clipping the chains.

It was a great feeling topping my first senior final route and It was made even sweeter when I found out that I had won.

Thanks for reading, I know it's been a long one. Blog on Laval coming next!