GB Bouldering Team member Billy Ridal achieves 6th place in first round of the European Youth Cup, Langenfeld, Austria (4-5th July).

11 members of the GB Junior Bouldering Team travelled out to Langenfeld, Austria to compete in the first round of the IFSC Boulder European Youth Cup 2015. For the junior bouldering team this was the first of three events in this years international competition calendar.

199 of the best junior competition climbers in Europe traveled to compete and climb at what turned out to be a great event. The competition venue is held in the centre of Langenfeld on a specially constructed wall, nicely covered to keep the athletes in the shade and surrounded by the amazing views of the Otzal valley. The event was split over two days with both qualifiers and finals occurring on both days. Qualifiers were held in an 8 bloc scramble format and finals in IFSC Semi Final Format (5mins on, 5mins off).

Expectations and athlete standards were high with this year being the first to host a World Youth Championships later on in August. Add to this the high temperatures during the day (highs of 34-36 degrees) meant that the qualifier and finals times had to be adjusted to allow for climbing when the sun was not on the competition wall. This in turn meant an early start for qualifiers and a late finish for finals. All in all, a very tough competition and one which would test the mettle of the GB climbers.

Eugenie Lee and Gwyneth Uttley were first to climb on the Saturday in Youth B and showed everyone the GB Teams slab technical mastery both flashing to bonus and only falling short of the top move. Gwyneth went on to top on her second attempt. Jack Ramsden also Youth B, came out next, cruising his way up the first 4 blocs and placing only 2 attempts short of finals. Speaking to Jack he put his amazing effort down to the music playing on his iPod during warm up! Sylvia Barrett, Youth A, closed the day also coming very close to finals and having climbed during the hottest part of the day. All in all an amazing effort in some extremely hot conditions.

Tara Hayes, Luke Murphy, Aidan Roberts and Tommy Matthews continued the battle with the heat on Sunday all putting in brilliant performances in Female Junior, and Male Youth A qualifiers, lessons had been learnt from the previous day so ice water and cool packs came in useful. On to Junior Male qualifiers and Alex Waterhouse, Billy Ridal and Hamish Potokar pulling out all the stops to continue the efforts of Team GB.

This was the first time Billy had competed in an European Bouldering Event, and he made a great start flashing the slab and then continued by topping 6 of the 8 blocs, placing 7th in qualifiers to enter the final. A very chilled time in isolation for Billy who came out first to carry on a great days performance moving up to finish in 6th place. Billy commented on his performance saying "It was great to be able to get into the final and be able to climb on the best blocs of the day, I think the best the best feeling of the entire competition, was getting to look back at the crowd from the top of a finals bloc, incredible!”

All in all a great trip and a brilliant way to open this years competition calendar. Vice Captain Alex Waterhouse commented “ Even in the difficult conditions, the team performed remarkably and everyone put in a good performance. We came away with lot to think about and put into place before the next competition”.

The GB Team continued it's great form in L'Argentierre, France, at the end of July in Round 2 of the European Youth Cup and the European Youth Champs, where Aidan Roberts became Britain’s first ever European Junior Bouldering Champion.

Langenfeld results:

Female Youth B
Eugenie Lee - 31st
Gwyneth Uttley - 33rd

Male Youth B
Jack Ramsden - 11th

Female Youth A
Silvio Barrett - 22nd

Male Youth A
Aidan Roberts - 16th
Luke Murphy - 22nd
Tommy Matthews - 33rd

Female Junior
Tara Hayes - 19th

Male Junior
Billy Ridal - 6th
Hamish Potokar - 16th
Alex Waterhouse - 21st

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