The first ever BMC Talented Climbers Day took place at Climb Rochdale on Saturday 11th of October.

The BMC Training and Youth Committee (TYC) invited the top 12 climbers from each category in the BMC Youth Climbing Series Final 2008 held at Ratho in June and 46 climbers took part from all over the UK.

The day was organised as an informal competition and each of the climbers were coached whilst they were climbing to optimise their performance. Ian Dunn Junior Team Coach organised the day but lots of thanks must go to the other climbers who coached each of the groups, Neil McGeachy, Shauna Coxsey, Paul Craven, Ed Hamer, Tim Lloyd and Josh Farrell. Another big thanks must go to all the parents who brought the children to the event and acted as belayers, judges, chaperones etc. without this type of support events like this could not take place.

Whilst the children observed the demo’s of the routes and did a warm up Ian Dunn gave a short talk on training children and what to look out for and what to avoid. Mike Coxsey spoke on the dedication required if your child is in the British Team and attending International Events.

The day was a great success everyone came away with a bit more knowledge than they started with and hopefully there will be more warming up, cooling down, no campus board use and less injuries in the future. This should enable the BMC to enter a full size team for the EYC in Ratho in 2009 and in the World Youth Championship in Ratho in 2010. Keep a look out for dates of Trials and selection events for these. The Trials for 2009 are on 6th and 7th December in Ratho.

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