The British Junior Climbing Team were in Linz in Austria during October and achieved some fantastic results in the European Youth Series. This report is written by team member Catherine Whiteman who was attending her very first European event.

Catherine's report

We arrived at Stansted airport after a shuttle service via my dad, Mike Coxsey and Tony and Debbie Powell (thanks all). We met up with the rest of the team: all raring to go complete with jesters hats and broom (yes Rob that means you). After a pleasant flight we arrived in Linz late afternoon and drove to our accommodation. After dumping our gear and comparing each others rooms we went out for our evening meal. On our return we were asked to attend a small meeting and pep talk about the competition with hints and advice about warm-up and technique. We were also told our climbing order. It was at this point that reality struck home and I realised that tomorrow would be my first European competition! After the meeting we headed back to our rooms to get our heads down for the night in preparation for the next day’s competition.

Next day we got up at about 6:30 in order to be ready for breakfast at 7:00. After eating breakfast we got our climbing gear and headed up to the climbing wall in taxis. Once there we looked at the new wall they had built. We bagged some seats and began route reading with binoculars at hand. The competition started with the demonstrations of the routes. We watched carefully, to give us an insight into how to top the routes. The competition began. The people who were climbing first went off to warm-up while the rest of us sat in nervous anticipation watching each climber attempt the route. Beth, Natalie and Shauna topped their first routes with ease, while others from the team, although not topping out made excellent efforts to complete their routes.
By now I was incredibly nervous but with some reassurance from other team members I was ready to climb. I began the route well but unfortunately didn’t reach the top coming off a few holds from the top. The second qualifying route saw Shauna, Natalie and Robert through to the final for the following day. After a hard day of competition climbing we returned to our hotel. We went out for our evening meal which was Italian and after eating we went buildering. We returned to our hotels for a shower and sleep as Shauna, Natalie and Rob would need to be rested for the finals.

The next day Shauna, Natalie, Beth and I were up while others had a lie-in. Shauna and Beth went to their rooms with cups and teaspoons to wake them up. After eating breakfast we drove back down to the climbing wall. The three finalists from our team had to go into isolation while the rest of us went in the café. At 9:00 we moved on into the climbing area. Johnny was assigned to do the filming of the climbers. The competitors were brought out to route read. Then it was time for the final to begin. After a few climbers it was Shauna Coxsey’s turn. She smoothly climbed to the overhang and over the lip and past a tough move that most people were falling off at. We all thought she was going to top out but a tricky move saw Shauna jumping and touching the next move but just not quite sticking it. The next person from the British team to come out was Robert MacKenzie. He sailed through the first section of the climb and was near to the top when his legs swung off and despite efforts to stay on he lost grip and came off. Our final member of the British team, Natalie Berry was our last person to climb she was climbing the same route as Shauna but she was in a higher age group than Shauna. Natalie started her route with confidence she got onto the overhang but didn’t quite make it to the lip because of a difficult technical move. After watching the rest of the other climbers it was the presentations. Shauna, Natalie and Robert received a cake for their amazing climbs.

After the presentation we went back to our hotel to chill. We went out for a Chinese and more buildering where we met up with the Austrian team. The next day we were out shopping but didn’t have much time because we had to catch our flight.

My first experience of an EYC was fantastic I had lots of fun in the competition and we hope we will have the same success and perhaps even do better in the next competition Kranj. Thank you to Tony and Debbie for the amazing trip

Full results on the Team site here.

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