Sunday 19th July saw the senior categories of the BMC British Lead Climbing Championships held at the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena near Ratho, Edinburgh, in Scotland.

A BMC BLCC day starts with each climber completing two qualifying routes in the morning. The top climbers in each category then qualify for the final that is held in the afternoon.

The juniors and veterans competitions were held on Saturday.

Sunday was the turn of the male and female seniors.  In the first qualifying route one female competitor topped out - Natalie Berry.  In the first male route 5 competitors topped out.  The second qualifier routes were on the new awesomely steep competition wall and no one topped out.

In a close run final, Natalie Berry took the female crown topping out after a strength sapping finale along a horizontal section of the new competition wall - with Michaela Tracy a very close second, one place up on last year.

The male final went down to the wire too with James Garden just failing to make the final hold while Drew Haigh, who came out last to climb, topping out for a sensational and nail biting finish and the loudest cheer of the day.

Results

Female Senior
1. Natalie Berry
2. Michaela Tracy
3. Rebecca Hall

Male Senior
1. Drew Haigh
2. James Garden
3. Adrian Baxter

Full BMC BLCC results 2009 here

The BMC would like to thank all the volunteers who helped out and contributed to making the event such a great success. They all do a really fantastic job.

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