So summer has come once again and it was time for my favorite event of every year! The British Bouldering Championships! I've loved this event ever since the first time I entered, even after sustaining a nasty fall in it a few years ago and breaking my knee it's still held a special place in my heart. I'm not quite sure why, it could be the crowd that get's me psyched, being up in front of everyone, or possibly the just pushing yourself to your absolute physical limit. What ever it is, it gets me psyched and I love it.
I've always been obsessed with bouldering, even before I started competing I had my dad trying to get me to go do some routes because I'd done nothing but bouldering for weeks in a row. And a very personal goal of mine from quite a young age was to possibly get on the senior bouldering team when I grew up, I still have no idea if that will ever happen. But it's a goal and I'm not going to stop trying. So anyway, the event came, I was psyched and ready.
Qualifiers started on Saturday morning and from arriving with just the goal of trying to make Semi Finals and not being that nervous as it was my first year in the seniors I suddenly got nervous. I tried to shake it off in isolation while warming up but I couldn't, the excitement was still there but as soon as I walked out to get on problem one it really his me. My whole body was shaking, I read my climb and got on it. Honestly it felt really easy, but because I was so shaky and the holds where all tiny I just didn't get on with it until my third go where I topped it and walked off frustrated with myself for being so slow. After that I moved onto problem two which I quickly read and luckily by then the nerves had disappeared after I topped the first one. I got on and quickly flashed it with ease. Smiling I walked back to isolation for my rest then came out to try problem three... I could have kicked myself after this climb, my route reading just died. And the worst part? I don't know why. Normally when I do something wrong, especially in competition if I know why I did something wrong it won't bother me much because I can improve on it. But in this situation I was just stupid and didn't get the sequence right in my head until my fifth attempt, but sadly this go I fell off straight away and with little time left I had to make a tactical decision. Go for it and risk falling, or save my energy and go back to isolation? I made the risky move of committing for it. I got on and did it. Few. The fourth climb frustrated me immensely, first go I got the bonus and was at the main crux. It was an awkward throw round a corner for a poor hold, but the frustrating part was that the corner of the wall was in the way! My first go I stabbed my chest into it and my second I cut my arm on it. After that I realsied it was too powerful and not worth wasting more energy on so I went back to isolation. The final problem, I felt ready for it. I walked out quickly read it and got on, it felt really nice, not too difficult but still challenging. After I flashed that I was done with qualifiers and I had time to relax until the results came out. Luckily I came 7th in group B which meant I was through to the Semi Finals the next day in 14th overall! A massive congrats to Tara Hayes who's been a training partner of mine for years for qualifying in 3rd in the women's category!
I went home in the evening had a lovely barbecue and a decent nights sleep and felt ready by the morning to give it my all. I'd already made my goal, I had no pressure now, all I had to do was crush. Sadly I've been suffering from hay fever a lot recently and being outside did not help, and to top it off my throat was killing me. After convincing my dad to go get me an ice cream to help my throat I warmed up and after doing some pretty cool dynos and hard problems on the warm up wall I went out to climb. Problem one was a strange one, it started balancing across some volumes to then doing a bit of a deadpoint while balancing to a sloping volume higher up, from there you got a slightly higher foot onto a very slippy foothold and had to pull up to the final hold, another slopper. Sadly I got to the last hold, held it for a second then fell. Problem two was equally as frustrating, accept completely different. My first go I only got two moves into it, on my second once again it was the last hold! It felt really powerful and I thought I'd tweaked my shoulder a bit, I pulled on again but realised I used to much strength and gave it a miss. After a rest in isolation I came back out for the third problem, it started on average holds to some holds on a volume, but sadly I got my holds a bit mixed up and only got one move into it. The final climb was really amazing though it started on two volumes with a horn shaped hold, then went straight into a roof. I pulled off the side of the roof caught an undercut in the middle then threw for a small hold round the lip from there I was too tired to think straight and I fell off swinging while trying to catch the bonus hold. If I was thinking straight I would have lowered off my legs first instead of just full on jumping, then I might have been able to hold the swing and get points for the bonus.
From there I was finished, but I was happy. I felt I climbed pretty well, there was like always, room for improvement. But the best part was I got an amazing result (As far as I'm concerned) and finished 10th! I'm very pleased about this, as it was a similar sort of crowd to Rocfest and CWIF and I got a much better result than I had in both of them. Hopefully I can do even better in the final round of the Junior British Bouldering Championships on August the third, which just so happens to be my eighteenth birthday as well! Congrats to Jen Wood for putting a fantastic effort in, making the finals and finishing in 6th in the end!
I'm going Kilnsey for a few days with Tom Bonnert next week to hopefully get some hard routes done which will be a fun experience for a boulderer like myself. Then it's the European Championships, Junior British Boudlering Championships and many, many trips I already have planned out! Time for the summer of sends to commence, let's to crush.
BMC Report and Results
Male Qualifications Replay
Female Qualifications Replay
Semi Final Replay
Final Replay
Video of most my climbs
No comments:
Post a Comment