World Championships 2011, Arco

Surrounded by the steep limestone faces on which the competition was originally held and thousands of people have climbed, Arco is an inspiring place.  A castle towers high above the town with narrow cobbled streets housing delights for all.  An ice-cream parlour serving more flavours than you can name also displays photos of the owner with famous climbers.   There’s pizza, pasta and outdoor equipment stores.  The cafe by the church, with the usual array of tables in the street shaded by an awning, is a climbing cafe.  Climbing is everywhere.

Over fifty nations paraded through the streets, lined with photo portraits of previous stars of the competitions and welcoming spectators.  The town celebrates climbing.  We held our flags high and made our way to the competition arena for the opening ceremony.  After pledges to abide by the rules of the Climbing and Paraclimbing World Championships, we were entertained with an artistic display of singing, dancing and acrobatics.  The theme was elements, relating the 3 disciplines of bouldering, lead and speed to fire, air and water with power, grace and flow.

Over 700 competitors were entered between all the disciplines – amazing.  For me the bouldering competition had its ups and downs.  The qualification problems were very doable, but also very droppable.  Competing against almost 70 other girls, we were split into two groups in which we needed a top ten result to proceed to the semi-finals.  This is the biggest field I have competed in.  I flashed 3 problems and dropped 2, with some frustration.  I tied with Alex Puccio and for some time we were in joint 10th place.  Some strong contenders came through and we finished joint 12th in our group, 23rd overall.  Once again, a close one.  I am very pleased to have flashed problems, got points in such a big field and tie with Alex, a multi-finalist in the World Cup series.

Seventh Heaven

At home, with the local crowd, the Sheffield round of the World Cup Series is an amazing, exciting and somewhat scary event!  I had a couple of Canadians staying with me, which helped raise the pre comp anticipation that was slightly missing from last year due to the familiarity of my surroundings.

My warm up went well.  I repeated some familiar problems, covering a variety of climbing styles, and I was catching some practice dynos.  Once again, I started the qualifiers a bit shakily, fumbling around on some volumes, before being faced with a nice thuggy problem that just needed a little finesse to keep my feet on for my first top. 

Then it was double dyno time.  I told myself that I had to do it first time, going with both hands, all out.  I prepared, I jumped, one hand went up…. sigh… but YES, I caught it.  Heel on, climb, climb, climb, don’t drop it.  The top was very droppable, but with some hand swapping and gurning it was done.

I took ages to get going on the fourth problem, before taking a better look at the hold I was rolling over onto.  I decided to pinch lower down near a chip and hand swap into position.  This worked and I quickly gained the penultimate holds.  The top looked a mile away.  One foot was on a steep angled volume, the other on a slippery button.  The coaching in my head was telling me to just jump.  I started to go for it and my foot slipped, but I stayed on, adjusted and jumped.  There was a deafening roar from the crowd – I caught the top hold.  Match, celebrate.

I’d done enough to qualify for the semi-final in 17th place, so 4th out in the semi.  I got the 1st top, annoyed not to get the flash.  I didn’t think to put my foot in the start cup on the second problem, so failed to progress to the bonus.  I just scrabbled around the start moves.  The third problem went 2nd go, after a good think about how to deal with the slopey volume to gain the nice crimp.  I did my signature ‘rock into a lock’ move, finger crawling slowly onto the last hold, desperately inching (possibly millimetre-ing) onto the hold.  Phew.

The fourth problem haunts me a little as I know I could have done it.  I just didn’t think to guppy the bonus.  I didn’t think I’d climbed that well, but am always open minded until I see the scoreboard.  I saw the scoreboard.  I was in first place, and I stayed in the top 6, in final contention, until the last climber climbed the very last problem of the semi-final.  I almost made my first World Cup final.  It was real, I wasn’t dreaming, I’d just come 7th in the World.  Wow.

I was asked ‘What next?  What are you doing tomorrow?’.  The response?  Going to work!

Lol

Baking Barcelona

After Eindhoven it was back to work for 3 days before flying out super early on Thursday morning to Barcelona.  I didn’t think I was going to have time for any maintenance of my never ending back knots, but Global Therapies squeezed me in for a pummel during my lunch break as I was passing through Glossop on the Tuesday.  This was good timing as it meant I could rest for an evening and still fit in a quick climbing session the next day to realign everything (or knot back up a little!).

I spent a day and a half looking around Barcelona.  The architecture was stunning, the sky was blue and it was hot hot hot.  Here’s some photos of the beach/marina areas, around the Olympic stadium and some flora I liked.  Also a really impressive roundabout with associated bus route map – which bus were we meant to be on?

Then it was competition day, indoors with no air-con.  I was concerned about the heat as I have previously been unable to function in very hot conditions.  The lads were suffering, it was getting hotter.  I was red in the face and ridiculously hot, but I ultimately I felt surprisingly ok for competing.  My skin was in good condition and I didn’t need to chalk up as much as I had expected.  However, my comp vest along with everything else was wringing wet.  Pleasant.  I made a few errors, but this time I did enough to make the semi-final.  Yippeeee.  I qualified in 19th position and managed to gain a place in the semi to come 18th, my best result so far this season.

I almost got another top after taking 9 goes to get a dyno, but I thought the top hold was poor and needed to be gained statically.  I was wrong and I could have thrown for it.  I must keep trying to convince myself that if in doubt, I should throw for it.  It can make such a big difference – for example 8 places in this comp.

The GB girlies grouped together, all climbing similarly to place 16th, 17th, 18th and 21st.  Two lads also made the semis (top 20) to put team GB in 6th position. 

I attempted to help with the commentary on the live stream, but I wasn’t sure what to say.  What do people want to hear?  Let me know and I’ll pass it on.