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Quick trip to the Lakes
“Just a quick update to say had a great time bouldering in the Lakes recently.
We went to the Langdale Boulders and did some great problems, we also went up to White Ghyll crag and did a nice multipitch route, then headed over to the Bowder stone and did some bouldering, got a few 7a’s, a 7a+ onsight and was sooo close on a 7c…! Next time.”
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British Championships 2008
The British Bouldering Championships took place this year at the ‘Cliffhanger’ event in Sheffield. Last year I took second place to a good friend of mine Katie Whittaker, but this year I was hoping to step up a place and maybe win! I’d been training for it and was really psyched.
The qualifiers went really well for me, I managed to get all the climbs first go, except for one, which I quickly got second go. I seemed to finish quite fast as well, which gave me plenty of time to rest for the finals.
The qualifiers threw up a few shock results with Katie not quite managing to get through to the finals and a few other really strong climbers not making it through (congratulations to fellow Nottingham climber Beth Monks, on getting through to her first BBC final!)
So, then came the finals. I qualified in joint first with Audrey Seguy, which means I had to climb later fifth out of the six finalists.
The first problem was easy and suited my style, so I got it first go.
The second problem was trickier, but again suited my style and I managed to onsight it. At this point things were really going my way! See the video in the next post.
And so, the third problem… I set off strongly and got all the way to the last move, but NO!, I popped off before I matched the hold with both hands (which means that as comps are scored only on getting to the very top I didn’t score!)
Ok, so shake it off and carry on… I was climbing strongly on the fourth problem, got my hand on the last hold of this problem, and went for the match (and the points) but NOOOO! Again, I just popped off…! This was going from a dream comp, to a nightmare one!
So fifth problem, I knew if I topped this one, I could still do really well. I got to the hardest part of the climb, and had no problems getting through it (I later found out, no one else had managed to get past this move) then went for the top, one hand on the top, going for the match, the points and probably a top three place…. and guess what happened?!?!? Yep, it really wasn’t my day. This time my foot popped, bringing me crashing down to the floor, and to 4th place overall.
With reflection, I’m really pleased to have come 4th, and to be lucky enough to compete in amazing competitions like this, but I also topped all 5 problems first time (with one hand!). Never mind, next year!? and congratulations to Audrey who got 1st place and everyone else involved.
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