Sunday 10 June 2012

Yet more Comps

So friday night i was just chilling at home, when i realised there was a comp at CityBloc Leeds, Bloc Party, and it looked pretty good, and its all good training for the BBC's anyway. So my Dad soon had a phone call asking if he could take me and Natasha Smile, a good friend of mine, to the comp on Saturday, and it turned out Saturday morning we were on our way.

We arrived at CityBloc and got warmed up and looked at all 40 qualification problems that had to be completed in 4 hours, turns out 40 problems is a lot. I worked my way through them and made some stupid mistakes and i never thought i would be making finals, as i had wanted to. I wasn't feeling strong and i got 277 out of 400, not good at all. But i just scraped finals getting in at joint 5th, there was only meant to be 5 in finals.

In Finals the first problem was relatively easy up to the bonus, on my flash attempt i got the bonus and fell off the same point every attempt after that, and managed to get pumped, never good at the beginning of a final.

The second problem felt nails, i couldn't get my head round it, just kept greasing off dirty slopers and volumes, and again getting pumped, got no where on this problem.

 The third problem was very interesting, a pretty steady start, then a sideways fall-jump thing to a huge jug which was the bonus, then up to 3 very nasty looking crimps and a finish on a not so big hold. On my first attempt i used the wrong beta and fell off the sloper before the huge jug, then on my second attempt i set myself up on the sloper and aimed for the jug, i got it with my right hand, held part of the swing, came into match, and greased off!! i was gutted! And i did the same every attempt after that, got some pretty exciting falls in that final, face-planting the matt, all hilarious. I didn't know whether they would count the bonus for the third problem, so it was a bit of a tense wait to see where i had placed overall. But before they announced the winners i tried the third problem again, and i easily held the swing, and i felt so stupid, because i knew i could have done it in finals, it was an easy move! I guess its just something to learn from, I need to learn that if i want some chalk on that huge jug i was greasing off because it was a new hold i should put some chalk on it! And i need to relax for finals, and get over the head game that climbing is all about, but it will come.

So it was time for announcing, i was expecting to stay at 5th seen as i hadn't climbed well at all, but it turns out my name wasn't called until 3rd! i was happy with that! Then Diane Merrick came second and Leah Crane came first, so i wasn't disappointed with 3rd at all! And i got £25 to take home, not bad for a last minute comp! And i am currently still getting over tonsillitis! so yeah, not bad. Oh, and Natasha Smile won the juniors and got a shed load of stuff! Well done Tash! So all in all it was an awesome day with very cool problems and a great atmosphere, will hopefully be there next year, but for now im going to concentrate on BBC's, and im glad i got one more final in as im aiming to podium at the BBC's, and with only 4 weeks to go the pressure is on!

Still got that comp psyche..

Problem 2, getting no where
Problem 1,  holding the bonus


Problem 3, steady does it

Problem 3

Problem 3, so close on that swing!

Problem 3 again

Problem 1 again,  in the process of getting pumped.