Summer roundup – new and old things

Senior GB Team in Chamonix, photo John Ellison

After a couple of days rest from the Senior World Cup in Chamonix I travelled down to London for the Youth Open. It was boiling in London, reaching 34oC per the car whilst stuck on the M25. I qualified for the finals in first place and so was last out of isolation.  I almost topped out the final route, great photo from Paul Alexander from Tokyo Magic catching my foot slipping. It was great to be competing in the UK and in my age group again, the win gave my confidence a boast after the Senior World Comps.

Final route at youth open, photo Paul Alexander at Tokyo Magic

  

Next was something totally new and for fun – the Deep Water Solo comp in Exeter.  I had done no training with this in mind, have not even been swimming for ages, and never done any DWS.  It was a great fun to take part in. The event was also very well organised event that ran like clockwork. It looked a bit bouldery for me when I got there – the water did not look to inviting, I did not want to fall in too early.   I was pleased to top the first problem, keeping my shoes and chalk dry.  However, I let myself down with a lack of flexibility at getting my foot up on to a small screw on.  Fresh dry shoes on for the third problem (great to have a spare pair of Primes), all was going fine until I could not switch from a toe to a heal hook.  I was a bit annoyed with my climbing, but this is the first boulder comp I have taken part in for years, so 16^th place was not so bad.  Watching the finals with so many of my friends in the Devon sunshine was very enjoyable.

Next it was off to the Senior World Championships in Gijon, Spain.  This was run in tandem with the Senior Para climbing championships, and the whole event lasted a week in hot sunny Spain.  The event was held in a huge indoor arena and opened with the speed climbing, the next day it was qualifiers for the men.  The wall had been purpose built for the comp, and looked fantastic; the routes however looked rather difficult.  I was hoping to get higher than I did on both qualifiers, however on the first I missed a hold and on the second I forgot to move my feet.  The silly mistakes are by biggest problem at these senior competitions, hopefully with more experience they will become less frequent.  It was really impressive to watch the full time professional climbers competing throughout the week and the final was really exciting.  Watching and meeting the Para climbing team was impressive and inspirational.

Finals at Gijon

Other new things; I was mostly pleased with my A level results, and am off the Sheffield Uni to study Aerospace Engineering in September.  I have also been outside climbing a few times over the summer, it was good to chill out and do some fun climbing with a few mates outside.

Once again, a huge thank you to all my sponsors; without their help this would be very hard to do. SportsAid, Beyond Hope, Johnson Matthey, Ribble Valley Borough Council.