Nothing could come between Shauna Coxsey defending her double Boulder and Lead championship titles this year – not even a broken leg. BMC Competition Officer Rob Adie reports.
This weekend saw Edinburgh International Climbing Arena, Ratho play host to the British Lead Climbing Championships and British Speed Climbing Championships.
The Saturday showcased all that was young and (as much as I shouldn’t say it) old in British competition climbing, with 92 junior competitors, 4 male veterans and – for the first time –11 female veterans all vying for the opportunity of a podium place.
The Junior competition was a fast-paced qualifying session of frenetic action, with everyone putting in the extra effort to get that little bit further up their qualifier routes to gain their slots in the final.
The Veterans’ event was slightly slower paced but still just as entertaining, and a great crowd of supporters gathered to see pink tutus do multiple laps of the Ratho walls. The female vets were competing on behalf of a charity supporting epilepsy sufferers. Their entrance fees were donated and plenty of cakes sold on the day to support the cause.
The Junior finals were dominated by the GB Team members (plus some of the Irish team) and very strong visiting Swiss climber Amanda Rohner, who won the Female Junior Category.
Congratulations go to all the podium places. View full results here.
Sunday dawned cold and clear for the Senior lead event, and the Junior and Senior speed event.
The qualifiers were mainly about who was strong enough to hang off the holds whilst blowing on their other hand to try and keep some blood flowing in the cold arena. There were lots of top outs on the first male qualifier 1, whilst the second split them up nicely; only reigning champion Dave Barrans powered through the final sequence to top out.
The female qualifiers were dominated by formidable trio of Michaela Tracy, the reigning champ Shauna Coxsey (competing in her first event since breaking her leg in the summer) and super-strong American boulderer Alex Puccio, currently living in Sheffield. It was all about just what order they’d finish in.
The male final was a stamina fest, straight up the middle of the hugely steep orange competition wall, with some funky moves in the final roof stopping all of the competitors from getting to the top. Ed Hamer got slightly further than local Robbie Phillips, to regain the title he lost to Dave Barrans last year. Dave finished third.
The women’s route was made up of steady climbing into a fierce crux sequence in the steepest part of the roof. In one of the closest finishes in years, Shauna gained the top spot just ahead of Alex Puccio.
This strong effort by Shauna, means that she is now both the British Lead and Bouldering Champion for the second year in a row, despite breaking her leg this summer, just after the British Bouldering Championships.
Special recognition should be given to the strong crop of juniors who somehow found enough strength after Saturday’s junior event to come back and enter the seniors. Luke Tilley, Jonny White, Jenny Wood, Sarah Pashley and Amanda Rohner all made the senior final.
The speed event was also well attended by the juniors, with some seriously fast times being run up the 15m 6b+ world-record route.
There were several times under 13 seconds for the boys and two sub-19 seconds for the girls giving an impressive display for the spectators.
We now have two IFSC Youth A boys who have climbed the route fast enough to qualify to compete abroad at an IFSC speed competition – big congratulations to Orrin Coley (the new British Champion) and Alex Bosi (third place).
The speed climbing event has not quite caught as much enthusiasm with the seniors as it has with the juniors, and with a lot of tired arms after the lead final, the signup sheet for the senior speed competition was looking disappointingly empty.
The female event had to cancelled due to lack of competitors (a minimum of four are needed), and the male event only ran because John Roberts, one of the volunteer belayers, was drafted in to make the numbers.
Calum Forsyth was crowned Senior Speed champion in a close-run final with Robbie Phillips, both having just finished competing in the senior lead event only minutes before.
View full results from both events.
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