My Boreal boots, vest and chalk-bag worked hard at ROCKSTARS. I made it into the second round!
I was invited back to the Adidas Rockstars comp, this time in Stuttgart. I was feeling strong and well looked after. They really know how to look after the athletes. The format is slightly different to the World Cups. We get to look at the problems from a distance and chat about them with the other competitors. Despite this, I still made some interesting decisions whilst climbing! For example, avoiding a volume that would have been much better than the tiny hold I went for and didn’t latch. I kinda warmed up as I went through the problems, building up to flashing the last. I climbed the best (in comp) that I have so far this season and did enough to qualify in 12th.
The semi-final didn’t go so well. I got up to within reach of between the penultimate hold and last holds of 3 out of 4 problems, but didn’t top any of them. Quite a few competitors only got 3 bonuses, but I had a couple more goes and dropped down to 19th. It’s very frustrating to get so close so many times, and not get any tops. There’s some photos below of the climbing and general event (rock band and all). More can be seen here along with some videos.
After the comp I had a general massage for the climbing muscles, then had my post pleurisy achy ab area checked out by the doctor to see if he could suggest any exercises/treatment to assist recovery. He reported that the muscles are fused together and needed physio treatment, and also that I should have a course of cranial-sacral therapy; something I have never come across. Nothing could be done immediately and so he just put me on the electro-magnetic bed for a bit as it is meant to aid recovery. I’d been on the beds before and could not tell if they had helped. After 20mins this time I got up and couldn’t stop crying for the rest of the day. This was unpleasant, unexpected and unexplainable to me. I was emotional and didn’t know why. Thankfully the effect wore off by the following morning, just leaving me puffy eyed and weary.
Our very own Rockstar, Mina, climbed very well and crushed each round to make her first international final. The final was amazing. Mina climbed well, but an unlucky slip left her one attempt behind the others. The format meant that she was therefore out of the running after 2 problems, in a very very respectable 6th place. Alex Puccio went on to win on the super-boulder.
The final continued, with Sean McColl stealing the show. The use of the word ‘awesome’ to describe his climbing could not be more appropriate. The video of the final is here and is well worth a watch.
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