Results of the British Bouldering Championships held on 15 and 16 January 2011 held at the Outdoors Show at Excel London
Click here to see the full results of all categories.
The BBC's this year were held for the first time at the Outdoor's Show new location at the ExCel in London. The event was a great success with huge crowds turning out to watch.
With the Seniors competing on the Saturday; the show organisers told me that they were expecting over 16,000 people through the doors - I think a good proportion of those people came to watch the final - the place was packed with all the stands next to the wall being totally invaded by spectators.
And what a final it was! With the women needing at least 80 out of a possible 100 points to qualify for the final and the men needing 94 out of 100 to qualify it was going to be a hotly contested competition!
When the final started you could not move in the audience and as the first competitors came out to climb, the atmosphere was tense. With both the mens and womens finals running at the same time, the setters had put together 4 devious problems for each of them to decide the championships.
In the womens category in previous years it has always been a closely fought battle between Leah Crane and Katy Whittaker, this year the rumour was that Shauna Coxsey had recovered from her knee injury sustained at the world cup in the summer and had been training hard. She certainly showed it and absolutely dominated the finals topping out on all four problems without even breaking sweat. This left the usual duo to dual it fight it out for the remaining podium slots, and it finished up in its normal placings, Leah - 2nd, with Katy just behind in 3rd.
The mens was more of an open affair, with last years champion Nigel Callendar not competing; the title was anyones. In the end it was a closely fought battle between Jon Patridge, Dave Barrans and Ned Feehally. All but one of the finalists topped three out of four problems, with problem 2 eluding all of them. So it was down to the number of attempts. Ned and Dave were left tied for first place, so it went to count back to the qualifiers, and with Ned qualifying in first place ahead of Dave, he regained his title that he lost last year.
With the wall reset using some elements of the senior final problems for the juniors qualifiers, almost a full quota of juniors rocked up on the Sunday, super psyched to compete. A more civilised than normal qualifying session saw 8 young climbers waiting nervously in isolation for the final to start.
Again the area in front of the wall was packed to the rafters as the first two competitors came out to start the finals. As the finals progressed, there were serveral girls standing out. Rachel Carr, Molly Thompson-Smith and Tara Hayes looked solid throughout the final, with the rest of the girls starting to crumble under the pressure. It came down to the final problem; with Rachel and Molly failing to climb it all Tara had to do was top her fourth and final problem to take the win.
Last year Tara in her first bouldering final had wilted under the pressure, but this year with a wealth of competition experience behind her, she called upon reserves she did not know she had and danced up the final problem to take a very deserved win.
The boys final was very similar with it being open to anyone to win, but with two climbers standing out. The first few boys struggled wildly with first dynamic problem, but as soon as Oscar Krumlinde from Sweden came out and crushed it with ease, the stage was set. Sam Brannigan followed, matching Oscar problem for problem, until Oscar struggled on the third problem. He failed to do this, but cruised the last one, leaving Sam with the task of getting up both for the win. Sam stepped up to the plate and climbed magnificantly to stand on the top of the podium as a worthy champion.
All in all a great competition and it all looks good for a repeat perfomance next year!
Thanks must go to all the volunteers, the setters and the guys at the outdoor show who made all of this happen.
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