Saturday, November 2, 2013

Not a Junior Any More



The last comp before the end of the summer holidays was in Stavanger in Norway early in September.
This was my last ever lead comp as a junior and yet I still felt I was new to the team. I was determined to do well and finish the year on a high.
As usual we spent the Friday walking around town and exploring the place, and as usual there wasn’t a lot to do but it was nice to spend some time with the team and relax before the comp.


well psyched

It was a very early start on Saturday but at least breakfast was good.
The weather wasn’t great in Norway, but it was a lot nicer than inside the venue; which the wall shared with an ice rink!
We all put on extra layers as we walked in and started warming up.
My first route didn’t go so well, I was feeling the pressure of my last comp and got a bit nervous when I really had to pull. The second route went a lot better except for getting my leg caught in the rope and ending up upside down. But I had made my first EYC final in 9th place - along with the whole team!!
This meant another very early start on Sunday, but with the whole team going down to the wall together, I got psyched pretty quickly.
Being in the top section, I had the longest wait in isolation (with Charlotte and Sarah). After about 3 hours I was the first out of the 3 GB junior girls feeling quite nervous.
The route looked ok until a double dyno quite high up, but I was feeling pretty stressed knowing it was my last ever route in a European and I over gripped and got pumped quickly, I fell a few moves below the dyno.
It turned out 7 of the 10 climbers fell around this move, being separated by +s or count back, leaving me in 9th place.
Although I wasn’t that pleased with my climbing I got my best result and had a great time on my last trip with the lead team.
I finished the season with a world ranking of 9th - quite unexpected :)

Pretty soon after Norway I started Uni and Sheffield.

I lasted about 12 hours before getting ill, then I got tonsillitis and decided it would be better to go home for a couple of days to help me recover.
The second week went a little better though I was still on antibiotics, and unfortunately this was the week of the BLCC's.
I had been really looking forward to this comp, hoping to add the lead title to my bouldering one, so i was really upset I hadn’t been able to train for it properly.

I managed to top the first route in the juniors and do well on my second, qualifying for the final in 2nd place, feeling better than I thought.
However in isolation I suddenly got exhausted and didn’t climb my best in finals and finished in 4th place (congrats to Charlotte for winning in her last year). There wasn’t much time to dwell on the result I had the seniors the next day, so I went back to the hotel and slept from about 7pm.
The next day I did feel a lot better and managed to top both qualifiers, but again in isolation I lost all my energy and got tired ridiculously early on the final route and finished in 6th.
I did speed for a laugh, not expecting there to be 3 very serious competitors. I came last (even Sarah beat me) but it was a lot of fun and so different from other climbing.
r1 juniors



After the BLCC's i only had a week before my first and last junior bouldering European in Laval, France.
Somehow I managed to get tonsillitis again though!

Fortunately by Friday I was eating normally but I was still feeling horrible and couldn’t sleep properly.
I had a great time with the bouldering team though. It didn’t feel like my first bouldering trip at all until Saturday morning. Bouldering comps somehow manage to start even earlier than lead ones!
I set all 4 alarms for 6am and went to bed early.
After a groggy breakfast i was feeling quite psyched and confident heading down to the wall. I started warming up straight away while it wasn’t too busy then we all went to view the problems - about an hour before climbing started.
They all looked hard. I knew that a few were toppable but I wasn’t convinced i could get any in 5 attempts so I picked the one that looked best and decided i would try that first and went back to warming up to stop worrying.
The warm up area wasn’t bad but it was so busy, and I was a bit intimidated by the other climbers.
At 9am we were allowed to start climbing. I knew which problem I was going to do so had another quick look at it then handed my score sheet in. I was the first one on the wall, which never happens! And I managed to flash the problem.
This gave me so much confidence and just got me excited to try the other problems. I got straight on the one next to it, which seemed basic just small holds, and managed to flash this one as well.
By now I was having a really good time so even when I got on the harder problems I was relaxed and could give it everything, especially with the great support from the rest of the team.
For a while I was making progress on problems and getting a few bonuses but not topping so i went and tried one most people had done and managed a relatively easy flash.
With about half an hour to go I was really tired and feeling the effects of being ill, but i was given a biscuit and told what problems to get on by Claire and Michelle (team chaperones) which was great because I was just running between problems wasting time and energy, and I nearly managed another top but my foot slipped on the last move.





By the end of qualification I was really happy with my climbing. I sometimes find it hard to flash problems but I had managed to flash all the ones I topped and I did alright on some of the other problems. But i had just really enjoyed! And it definitely showed me what I wanted to do as a senior.
I finished in 8th, my best ever European result on my first and last junior bouldering European.

Now it was the girls turn to support the rest of the team, who all did amazingly and it was great fun being the loudest team cheering.
By the end of the Saturday qualifications, Nathan had qualified for the finals in his last junior comp and Tara and Hamish had only just missed out (despite Hamish pulling out half way due to injury).
After a lot of food at the hotel we all went back to the arena to watch Nathan in the final.

It was amazing to watch and really inspirational to see him come out and flash the first block then top the second. It was pretty close at the top and in such a strong category we weren’t sure what was going to happen. But Nathan managed to top the third one to win!!!
The whole team was excited to see Nathan on the top of the podium so started learning the words to the national anthem, which we weren’t so good at.
cool holds in the final
After such an exhausting day we were all up early to watch the youth B qualifications. More great performances from GB. Will and Pete got in the finals and Alexia and Ed just missed in 7th.
After another evening screaming we had another podium! Will got 3rd place after a very smooth flash on problem 2.

It was an awesome trip. I loved competing and loved being part of such a talented and supportive team.
It made me realise how much I’m going to miss being a junior but I had a great year to end on: I now have a junior lead world ranking of 9th, a junior bouldering world ranking of 16th and some promising senior performances in Britain.