BBC's 2012

I’ve had about 12 months of solid indoor training, leading up to the BBC’s and the Euro’s and last weekend it was finally time for the BBC’s. This year they had decided to go with the official IFSC European age categories; meaning I was back in the junior category (born 1994 and 1993) which gave me 2 more years in this category. And after getting on the podium 3 years in a row in the junior category in previous years, I was hoping to finally win.

Cliffhanger had been called off the night before by the council but the comp was still to take place. I’d had a bit of a problem with my knee for a few weeks leading up to the comp but I had a few sessions with the team chiropractor and it seemed to be feeling alright on the day. I love big comps like this, where you get to climb with everyone you haven’t seen for a while and loads of other great climbers.

So the comp kicked off and I got straight on a pretty hard problem with a dyno and flashed it. This put me in a great mindset for the rest of the comp. In the end I managed to get 7 of the 10 problems with a score of 67 and 8 bonuses putting me in joint 9^th position; 1 place out of the senior final. Gaz parry just snook in and took the 8^th spot by 1 bonus hold. While I was a bit disappointed I was so close to making the final, I was really pleased with my performance. I took the junior title by a full 10 points. So I’m now the new Junior British Bouldering Champion.

It was a great comp with some good technical problems; just what I like. The final was great to watch, with Britain’s top climbers competing against each other it can only be a good thing. Hopefully next year I won’t be watching.

British Team Training

So after the BBC’s; I was having a chat with Nick Clements (the manager of the British Bouldering Team) who was really impressed with my result, as was I. And I ended up getting an invitation to go and train with the team at Boulder UK in Blackburn.

On the day I turned up to see most of the team there and we got stuck straight in. First of all we did 5 or 6 problems that Ian Vickers and Jamie Cassidy had set for the team to try. We went round in pairs and I was with Gaz Parry. I did all the problems which I was surprised with as I thought I would struggle to get any.

After that I had another chat with Nick and he mentioned the possibility of doing some competitions across Europe and maybe a round of the world cup. I was so shocked when he told me this but happily shocked as I didn’t think I was that good.

Then we did a couple of circuits which were pretty damn hard, but I still enjoyed it. After that I sat and listened in on the team talk discussing things like the new arrangements for the BBC’s and similar things. At the end of the day Nick invited me to another training session at City Bloc in Leeds and somewhere else in Preston. I gladly accepted and am pretty happy with the day overall.

This is a late update from late January