The BMC is setting up a new Junior Bouldering Team to compete internationally on the European Youth Bouldering Cup circuit. This means big changes to the British Bouldering Championships and some new junior competitions.

This is an exciting development, explained BMC Competitions Officer Rob Adie:

“The IFSC have run a European Youth Cup circuit in bouldering for the last two years, and next year the European Championships will have a bouldering discipline. It’s great news that the BMC are setting up a Junior Bouldering Team, allowing talented young boulderers to represent their country in Europe.”

To allow the selection of this new Junior Bouldering Team, 2013 will see some major changes to the way the British Bouldering Championships (BBCs) are run.

The junior event will now be split into a three-event series. This will start as the Scottish Youth Bouldering Championships, in May, run by the Mountaineering Council of Scotland. The two other events will be run by the BMC, in conjunction with the very successful Open Youth events in the summer and winter. A Junior British Bouldering Champion will be crowned as the overall winner of the series.

For both the summer and winter Open Youth competitions, we plan to run the open-lead event on the Saturday and a new bouldering event on the Sunday in the same city. This will give the team management three events from which to use the results to select a team. This team will then meet and train with the team management and have the opportunity to represent their country.

The current British Bouldering Championships will be turned into senior-only, IFSC-style event. This will be a two-day event, run in the style of an IFSC Boulder World Cup. With the qualifiers on Saturday, and semis and finals on the Sunday, it will both provide practice in the international-style format, and be a great event for spectators.

2012 Open Youth competition
The new structure is conditional on having the finance to run the extra competitions. This is dependent on Sport England funding and we’ll get confirmation early in 2013.

However, in order to have enough time to select a GB Junior Bouldering Team for the 2013 IFSC European Youth Cup – which usually starts in May – we will be running a pilot bouldering competition in conjunction with our Open Youth Lead event in December 2012.

The Open Youth Lead event will at Awesome Walls Liverpool on the 8 December and the Open Youth Bouldering event will be at the Climbing Hangar, Liverpool on the 9 December.

Further details and online entry

Selection Criteria

If you have any questions, please contact BMC Competitions Officer Rob Adie

The Junior British Bouldering Team is supported by Sherpa Adventure Gear and NICAS.

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