The British Lead and Speed Climbing Championships took place at Awesome Walls Sheffield over the weekend of 3 and 4 October 2015. The event also included the final round of the IFSC Paraclimbing Cup series 2015.
The competition was fierce throughout the jam packed weekend at Awesome Walls Sheffield, with some of the strongest and fastest climbers in the UK vying for their national championship titles and some of the best Paraclimbers in the world competing in the last round of the IFSC Para Cup of 2015.
Saturday kicked off with 120 juniors climbing two qualifying routes each and the top climbers in each category going through to the final. After some of the routes being a little easy in some categories last year, we made sure that all the climbers were thoroughly tested by some really tough routes.
Then came the qualifying routes for the IFSC Paraclimbing Cup with more than 30 athletes entered from 9 different countries the competition was a fantastic display of determination and courage as well as some amazing adaptive climbing techniques on show. Even the competitors in the BLCC could not fail to be in awe in these guys impeccable technique.
Junior finals were a tense affair with each category coming out to do their stuff in front of a capacity crowd. The route setters did a fantastic job and lots of the routes were topped by the rightful Champions in their category.
The evening was finished off in fine style with a great show put on by the BMC Ambassadors - Steve McClure, James McHaffie, Callum Muskett, Molly Thompson-Smith and Jim Pope who entertained the crowd with some great tales of their climbing exploits and some weird and wonderful questions from their host Niall Grimes.
The 2015 British Junior Lead Climbing Champions are:
Junior categories
Female Junior
1. Molly Thompson-Smith 2. Phoebe Nelson 3. Flo Tilley
Male Junior
1. Connor Byrne 2. Billy Ridal 3. Alex Waterhouse
Female A
1. Rebecca Kinghorn 2. Jo Neame 3. Imogen Horrocks
Male A
1. Jim Pope 2. Peter Dawson 3. William Bosi
Female B
1. Isabelle Adams 2. Pippa Watkin 3. Catrin Rose
Male B
1. Kieran Forrest 2. Serverin Domela 3. Joe Czubkowski
Female C
1. Emily Phillips 2. Megan Wyatt 3. Hannah Smith
Male C
1. Hamish McArthur 2. Finley Wood 3. James Bateman
Female Veteran
1. Joanna Goorney 2. Vicky Askew 3. Phyllis Ryan
Male Veteran
1. Eddie Cooper 2. Chris Forrest 3. Nick Colton
IFSC Paraclimbing Cup
Sunday dawned misty and a lot of tired junior climbers joined the ranks senior competitors for the Senior BLCC event and the finals of the IFSC Paraclimbing Cup.
There was a good mix of Senior and Junior athletes that made the finals by climbing well on some exciting qualifying routes and the final was shaping up to be a very tense affair.
But first we had some fantastic displays of climbing technique and determination from the Paraclimbing athletes that had qualified for the final. There were some great battles in all the categories.
The British competitors finished as follows:
Esme Harte - Amputtee Leg - 1st
Dave Bowes - NPD A - 2nd
Phil Mitchell - Amputee Leg - 2nd
Sianagh Gallagher - Amputee Arm - 4th
John Churcher - Visual Impaired B2 - 4th
Full results from the IFSC Paraclimbing cup can be seen here.
Senior BLCC's
After a quick change round the Senior Finals commenced. In the womens event, the stronger girls all seemed to get stuck at the same point - a long move sideways along the lip of the main roof of Awesome Walls, it was only the second to last competitor Lucy Mitchell who latched the move and went on to fall of the second to last move of the route. Reigning champion Molly Thompson-Smith put in a valiant effort to reach the exact same point as Mitchell winning on countback to the qualifiers.
In the mens, William Bosi was looking for a repeat of last year where he last out to Jim Pope in the Juniors, (which also happened this year) but he beat everyone to be Senior Champion. He set the bar high reaching the 3rd to last hold on the route and with only Dave Barrans and Jim Pope to come, the atmosphere was tense. Dave fell off slightly lower down securing himself 3rd place and Jim climbed magnificently to the exact same spot as William and the same as the women he won on countback.
The 2015 British Senior Lead Climbing Champions are:
Senior categories
Female Senior
1. Molly Thompson-Smith 2. Lucy Mitchell 3. Jen Wood
Male Senior
1. Jim Pope 2. William Bosi 3. Dave Barrans
Full BLCC results can be found here
British Speed Climbing Championships
The British Speed Climbing Championships commenced after the senior finals and with relatively low numbers it was a quick affair in every sense of the word. Emily Phillips dominated the junior female event as she had done in the lead event. Flo Tilley narrowly beat Natalie Berry in the senior female and in the senior mens - an event that has traditionally been dominated by the Bosi brothers - Alex and William, a couple of slips from both of them relegated them to 3rd and 4th respectively and allowed Billy Ridal and Alex Waterhouse to jump ahead of them on the podium.
British Speed Climbing Championships
Female Junior
1. Emily Phillips 2. Pippa Watkin 3. Katherine McDougall
Junior Male
1. Aiden Dunne 2. Joe Czubkowski
Female Senior
1. Flo Tilley 2. Natalie Berry 3. Sarah Pashley
Male Senior
1. Alex Waterhouse 2. Billy Ridal 3. Alex Bosi
BMC/MCofS Junior Lead Cup
The Junior event this weekend was also the 3rd and final round of the BMC/MCofS Lead Cup Series. Results from the series are as follows:
Junior categories
Female Junior
1. Molly Thompson-Smith 2. Flo Tilley 3. Phoebe Nelson
Male Junior
1. Connor Byrne 2. Alex Waterhouse 3. Billy Ridal
Female A
1. Rebecca Kinghorn 2. Hannah Slaney 3. Jo Neame
Male A
1. Jim Pope 2. Peter Dawson 3. William Bosi
Female B
1. Isabelle Adams 2. Kitty Morrison 3. Catrin Rose
Male B
1. Aiden Dunne 2. Sammy Oakes 3. Alex Norton
Female C
1. Emily Phillips 2. Robin Casey 3. Katherine McDougall
Male C
1. Hamish McArthur 2. James Bateman 3. Jake Collins
Results for the whole series are here.
The weekend was a fantastic success and the BMC would like to thank all the volunteer belayers, judges, camera operators and route setters etc. for their help in running the event without which any of the BMC events would not be possible.
Full photo galleries and videos of the event will be available on BMC.tv and BMC Facebook very soon.
The BMC would also like to thank their official suppliers Entre-Prises climbing holds. The ropes are provided by Mammut as the official supplier of ropes to BMC climbing competitions. The prizes will be provided by the BMC and DMM as the official supplier of climbing gear to BMC climbing competitions. The competition vests will be provided by Five Finger Thing.
The GB Climbing Team is supported by the BMC and the Route Setting Association.
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