Junior lead team dubbed '100% club'

They’re calling them the 100% Club, a new and very special set of British climbers. These climbers are our junior lead team members and they have just recorded a 100% hit rate at getting into World semi-finals and European finals.

End-of-summer trips to Canada’s temperate west coast and icy-cold Scandinavia gave our young GB climbers and their team manager a ‘pinch us, we’re dreaming’ finale to the 2013 international competition year.

Here are the numbers. Six youth team members went to the World Youth Championships last month. All made the semi-finals and those six, plus six team-mates, went to the last round of the European Youth Cup (EYC) in Norway earlier this month. All of them – yup, you’ve got it – made their finals.

Every performance was notable but we should single out William Bosi, who ended the 2013 EYC series ranked 2nd in Youth B; Youth A star and team captain Molly Thompson-Smith, with a final EYC rank of 3rd; and Youth B’s Rebecca Kinghorn because, if you haven’t heard her name before, you heard it here first.

First: the Worlds, in late August in Canada, on the rainforested Pacific coast. An artist wanting inspiration to paint a child’s terrified face could have done worse than be there. A jaw-loosening sight greeted the team, coach Ian Dunn and a handful of supporters as they arrived. There were anxious giggles, quick messages home, shared glances. Is that it? That? I’m a climber, get me out of here!

It was a plane; about the size of some of the RVs out there, but with wings. Unfamiliar propellers, only two steps to get in, tiny wheels. It induced more anxiety than anything to come as the precious cargo of climbers clambered on. It flew and so did our six competitors, seasoned campaigners that they are. For the first time, GB had its entire squad in the Worlds semi-finals. So the first members of the 100% Club are Will, Molly, Pete Dawson, Buster Martin, Jim Pope and Alex Waterhouse.

The championship was on Vancouver Island, a 12-minute plane bounce over small Pacific isles to the harbour city of Victoria. The 18m wall that over 470 athletes from 34 countries had come to climb was, slightly incongruously, in a small suburban school. Some teachers one day decided to build a wall for their local school that could host a world championship. No small ambition; they pulled it off brilliantly.

Molly made her third consecutive world championship final. The paced, professional, considered and polite way she goes about her job as competitor and captain has climbers, coaches and parents of all nations cheering her up. In 13th place after her two qualifiers, Molly powered up to 7th in the semis and held that position after the final. Remember, and it’s hard to do so when watching her compete, that this year she’s in the younger half of Youth A. Expect her to silence her competitors’ cheers next year when she’s bagging podiums in the older half.

Will went into the semis a live contender for his finals and for a podium. He’d topped his second qualifier, and equalled the eventual world champion on his first, to qualify in fourth. But finals day wasn’t his day. A couple of bad calls on the wall saw him inconsolable off it and he finished 12th in the semis – not enough for the final eight.

One place behind him in the category reckoning was Devon’s fearless strong man Pete. He has clearly put in the work and it showed in his strength, technique and composure. His target was 15th place and, as he wrote in his blog, he overcame so much – first Worlds, first international isolation, first time out of Europe – to finish 12th.

The Youth B legend that is Jim, or ‘Pope’ to his growing band of admirers, was battling close behind them. His qualifying place, 18th, was a far better measure of him than his place in the semi-final itself, at 25th.

Our two Youth A boys, Alex and Buster, would probably allow that their semis didn’t show them at their best. Alex is, admirably and famously, never happy. He qualified in 17th and dropped to 24th in the semi-final itself. His summer of ticking off 8s all round Europe will have eased the pain.

Buster, after better results this summer outdoors than in, had qualified for his semi in 25th. If you’ve been to a competition, from a local YCS round upwards, you’ll probably know the dreaded sight of some poor kid, after travelling a long way full of optimism and fight, dribbling off the wall for no apparent reason just a handful of clips up. You think ‘There, but for the grace of God’, and look away to avoid adding to the hurt. That was Buster’s semi-final fate; he went from 25th to 26th. After a very stressful summer, and an hour of processing what had happened, then some hugs from the French, American, German and Austrian girls, he didn’t seem too much the worse for wear.

The GB camp enjoyed, almost as much as the climbing, supporting John Ellison as he made a £10,000 donation from Climbers Against Cancer to local cancer groups. As his friend, the competition commentator Sheila McCarron, urged the 34 nations to support John’s cause, word about CAC began to spread around this temporary centre of world climbing and hundreds of children will have gone home having heard John’s message.

So, after Canada, there was optimism and fight, hurt and the hope of redemption to take to the final round of the European Youth Cup in Stavanger. As the webcast commentators said, many a time: ‘The British are here, the British are strong’. Stavanger’s impressive, steep and multi-featured wall was next to an ice-rink, making keeping warm the first part of the fight.

There were 12 climbers this time: the Canada six were joined by female juniors Charlotte Garden, Sarah Pashley and Jennifer Wood; Youth A’s Connor Byrne and Tara Hayes; and Rebecca Kinghorn. The format was again two qualifiers, then straight to a final.

Connor set the tone in the opening round. First out, never an easy job, his inimitable style saw him set the standard. After the first qualifier, 10 of our 12 were in their category’s top 10.

Manager Ian’s team talk before the second qualifier clearly put a light under the fire. Will, Pete and Jim, first three up in their category, all topped. The commentators began to get lost for words as they enthused about the GB team. Will secured 1st in qualifying, Pete made his first international final.

Could it get any better? Enter Rebecca. She topped her second route with the cool, technique and determination of a pro. You’re not really expected to top anything in your first international year – unless you have a prodigious talent. She did and she does. She qualified in 4th.

The junior girls, Charlotte, Sarah and Jennifer, put in excellent climbs to qualify for finals in 6th, 7th and 8th. Buster, Connor and Alex needed to keep up the good work, and duly obliged. Buster was smooth and elegant and easily made the final in 6th; Connor made his first EYC in 9th; and Alex pulled out the stops to get the last qualifying spot. Molly and Tara were next, under pressure to ensure GB had, for the first time, all their climbers in an EYC final.

Tara had been competing in a senior bouldering event the week before, so her fight to make the final in 9th place was a seriously good effort. Molly just did what she does best; topped the route, handled the pressure and comfortably qualified for the final in 5th.

We haven’t properly mentioned team manager Ian Dunn yet. In Canada his normal boisterous excitement was tempered by slightly-stunned awe at the performance of his climbers. There, he had seemed to cope well with the congratulations he got from other coaches. By now, in Stavanger, he was just ecstatic, though it cost him a night’s sleep. He had one in five of the entire event’s finalists to take to isolation and dream about.

So, come finals day, and Will put his own nightmare in the Worlds to bed. Having topped both his qualifiers, he topped his final. And here’s the rub in comps: Sascha Lehmann, the likeable Swiss lad who also topped everything, was 46 seconds faster doing so and, only on time, relegated Will to second.

Jim put up a solid climb to fall at a controversial double dyno move – it stopped too many competitors at the same spot to be a good comp route. He would eventually finish 9th. Pete then continued his recent excellent form and, climbing to within three moves of a top, finished 7th.

Rebecca looked strong and composed in her final, but misread the sequence while looking like she had so much more to give. Nevertheless, she finished 8th.

Next up were Youth A boys. Alex came out and climbed in typical Alex fashion; emotional, passionate and strong, and a powerful climb saw him fall at another controversial double dyno on arguably the hardest route of the whole weekend. Alex was to finish 5th. Connor, already secure in the knowledge that he had made his first final, continued his good form and came off just below Alex to finish in a very creditable 6th. Buster was next up. He looked very comfortable in the early part of the climb and like he was going to challenge for a podium, but inexplicably came off one hold below Connor and finished 9th.

Youth A girls were then on. Tara climbed strongly and made her way up to the middle section of the wall before she succumbed, but a good climb saw a 9th place finish for her. Molly was up next, with high expectations. She breezed through the first and middle sections then reached that double dyno move, but couldn’t stick the holds and had to settle for 5th.

In junior girls, Jen and Charlotte were finishing their junior careers with a final – Jen’s first. Jen made the same spot as Tara, which also got her 9th place. Charlotte, our most experienced junior, came off at the same point, taking 8th on countback. Sarah went one hold past Jen and Charlotte for 5th place.

So that was the Stavanger round.

The overall EYC competition then got better for Team GB as the placings for the 2013 rounds were announced. William was 2nd, Molly, in the bottom year of her category, 3rd.

Final European Youth Cup rankings for the year are:

William Bosi = 2nd

Molly Thompson-Smith = 3rd

Buster Martin = 7th

Sarah Pashley = 7th

Peter Dawson = 8th

Charlotte Garden = 8th

Jennifer Wood = 9th

Connor Byrne = 10th

Jim Pope = 11th

Alex Waterhouse = 11th

Rebecca Kinghorn = 14th