Last weekend saw the champions of British Bouldering battle it out in the heat of Millhouses Park, Sheffield

The big blue and yellow marquee went up again for this years BBC's in Millhouses Park, and the route setters built up a huge wall that was 10m wider than last year due to it being used for an IFSC Boulder World Cup next weekend at the Cliffhanger festival - see here for more information.

Saturday saw the juniors battle it out for the title of British Junior Bouldering Champion and what a battle it was! The setters had concocted some hideous problems that involves these young climbers throwing all sorts of weird shapes in a bid to get themselves into one of the coveted slots for the final.

We used a new format for the final this year following the IFSC style of male and female competitors competing together. The boys put in some impressive efforts on the very steep boards, with Barnaby Ventham crushing the first two problems, becoming the clear favourite. However some very consistent and technical climbing from Edd Mowbray saw him take the lead and push on through to victory a very deserved win. Nathan Phillips made up the rest of the podium.

The girls competition was thrown wide open when the favourite - Kitty Wallace went out of the qualifiers due to injury, depsite having already topped 8 of the problems and qualified in 1st place. The problems were very hard for the girls final and there were a lot of very nervous faces in isolation with a good proportion of the juniors in their first ever competition final. Despite a huge amount of effort and battling there were very few topouts in the girls final, but the excllent technique and route reading of Charlotte Garden saw her improve on her 4th place finish from last year by 4 places. She toped the podium with Lily Rosengard and Rhoslyn Frugtniet taking the 2nd and 3rd place spots respectively.

The seniors kicking off early on the Sunday as the temperature rose so did the tense atmosphere as 20 women and 60 men took to the mats for qualifying. With the unexpected return from the IFSC Boulder World Cup in Eindhoven of British team members Ned Feehally (the reigning champion), Jon Partride and Mina Leslie-Wujastyk the competition stepped up a notch.

With 6 men and 6 women going through to the final, there were a lot of tired and hot faces lying around in isolation at the end of the qualifiers, but they were soon psyched again for the prospect of two very close finals. Coming out in reverse order Mark Croxall, and Katy Piddock kicked off the proceedings with some fiendishly crimpy and technical blocs. After 3 blocs it was still anyones game with 3 competitors in the running for both the men and the women.

In a very tense final bloc for the men, none of which topped out, Nigel Callander and Gaz Parry were left tied for 1st place, so the result was decided by countback to the qualifiers and because Nigel qualified in 1st place ahead of Gaz he took top spot on the podium, with Gaz relegated to 2nd. Jon Partirdge rounded out the podium.

The girls again went down to the final problem with reigning champion Leah Crane showing great consistency throughout the final, but with Mina Leslie-Wujastyk leading the way through the first two blocs and Shauna Coxsey and Katy Whittaker snapping at their heels. Shauna who was in her first BBC's as a senior after winning the junior title 3 years on the trot climbed excellently, but was just pipped by the experience of Leah and Katy. Leah cruised to the top of the last problem to retain her title for the second year.

The event was a great success again and was a great spectacle for the spectators who gathered in Millhouses parking enjoying the sunshine and excellent display of competition climbing from all the competitors.

A full set of results can be seen here.

View pic gallery by Alex Messenger here

Make sure you get yourself down to Cliffhanger next weekend to support the British Bouldering Team as they take on some of the best boulderers in the world at the IFSC Boulder World Cup, Sheffield. More information can be found here.

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