IT’S BEEN A GREAT FEW MONTHS

FLYING THE FLAG IN EUROPE

In September I represented Great Britain at the Munich round of the European Junior Bouldering Championships. This was my first proper international event and it was held at a really good venue; Boulder Welt in Munich. The format was 12 qualification problems and the top six through to the final. I have to say that although I do not normally get nervous at comps the nerves did get to me a bit at the start of this one. I had a bit of a shaky start and dropped a slab problem early on that I would have normally got. I held the final hold but could not match it. I settled a bit after that and went on to top out 87 of the twelve problems including one that only one other competitor got. When the scores came through I found myself in 8^th place which is good, but I was gutted because if I had got the slab I would have made the final. Anyway looking back on it 8^th in Europe in my age category, in my first Euro comp is a good result and I won’t be nervous at the start in the next one.

Later in September I completed the final round of the Summer Boulder League at the Depot and won this series overall and got a good prize for doing so. I also got my letter from the GB Team Manager – “YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED FOR THE GREAT BRITAIN SENIOR MALE BOULDERING TEAM.” The Team was officially announced in October and it was kind of strange and fantastic to see my name in the same list as Dave, Ned, John, Gaz, Stewart, James, John, Adam, Tyler, Ed and Tom. Wow! It’s quite a bit to live up to but I will do my best and I am really looking forward to it.

For the rest of October and November I have done a few more comps and have had some decent results such as wining the first round of the Climbing Works Boulder League and finishing 5^th in the final of the Battle of Britain at the Depot. I have also been training hard at ROKT.