UKC

After qualifying in the regional rounds held throughout England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, 187 competitors took part in an amazing final at EICA Ratho.
This is a huge event. It's the grand finale of the whole series. One hundred and eighty seven (yes, that's right... 187!) finalists...

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=55531

In reply to UKC News: Where's the comp wall gone???! That photo's a bit old eh...

If only we could have our own Ratho in central England.

In reply to UKC News:
What about the regional rounds in Wales?

In reply to UKC News:

Bit dissapointed in the report, just reads like a cut and paste from a PR leaflet.

For what it's worth, I attended & thought that the event was outstanding.

Having never been to Ratho before, I was a wee bit perturbed that my GPS actually directed me to a quarry about a mile from Ratho which is a common occurence according to the weary explanation from the workman who directed me to EICA.

The competition consisted of 3 boulder problems and 3 routes per age group . The 8-10 and 11-13 routes were top ropes, the 14-16 were lead.

All routes were demo'd by a member of the current British team.

The level of support shown by the spectators was superb, regardless of who was climbing, which was great to see. The staff/volunteers at ratho were fantastic given the sheer volume of people in and around the main climbing area and I thought the male/female 14-16 lead routes on the comp wall were brilliantly set with, as far as I'm aware, only one female (apart from Natalie Berry), topping out. *shameless plug for Rhoslyn Frugntiet, British Champion 14-16 female* , there were some incredible falls off the comp route which just reinforced the commitment that these youngsters show.

Only a couple of gripes, why was the waiting time between routes so long, some climbers had over an hours wait between climbing. I thought, given the ages of the competitors, that this led to an extremely long day.

Why wasn't this event more heavily publicised. Here on UKC, the BMC site and on Ratho's website the event merited barely a mention, bearing in mind this was the British Youth Climbing Championship. The youngsters taking part all put massive amounts of effort in to reach Ratho, surely a bit more exposure to the wider climbing community would have been beneficial, after all, these are the future competitive sport climbing stars.

The highlight of the day for me was watching a young lad with glasses (8-10?) attempting a purple route on an arete who seemingly got stuck around two thirds of the way up who steadfastly refused to give up and up and down climbed for what seemed to be an age but finally made the move and completed the route to the roars and applause of the spectators. the fighting spirit shown by this young lad was inspirational.

All in all, a fantastic day, at a superb venue.

In reply to catrin118:


Results of all regional rounds are here: http://www.indoorsout.co.uk/brycs2010results.htm
I posted everything within a few hours of the competitions.
Can't help with reports on the rounds though.

In reply to gramee:

With up to 33 (I think) climbers in each category, even when split into two groups of 16/17-ish it is inevitable that there will be a long wait between climbs.

It *was* a great day, but looooong.

In reply to Lurkio:

Y, good point. I remember thinking at the time that only one route was being climbed at the one time. As opposed to group A climbing route 1 then has a 10-15 min break and moves on to route 2 whilst group B climb the first route. I'm probably over-simplifying things here though, was just worried that muscles were getting cold between routes. Having to rouse them to warm up again was a task in itself

In reply to Mark Alderson:
Sorry, what I meant was why has Wales been left out of the first sentence of the opening post?

In reply to gramee:
Determined lad was Rory Whyte (Scotland South/Quickdraw Climbing Club). He did an article for current Psyched! on the Scottish finals - his first big comp. There were tears in spectators' eyes when he topped, we were all so proud of him.

Can I suggest parents and kids write their own reports and send them to relevant sites and local newspapers. It is possible to get cover if you find a friendly journalist and websites are often crying out for content. Photographs also help, although it is a definite skill getting a climbing shot that shows the climber's face. The more we can raise the profile of our sport the better.

In reply to silverstone:

Cheers dude, must admit to holding my breath whilst he hung on forever and a day (how DO they do that ). He did you all proud, absolutely massive fighting spirit, though on his way down, he did look a bit bewildered by it all as if to say "I had it all under control"

Agree with your sentiments regarding coverage but still narked that THE premier climbing site for the UK had little coverage of THE premier youth climbing competition in the UK. Obviously, I await the 'Leading ladder is best' response :P

In reply to gramee: You want to try being his Dad when he does that! I told him if he keeps that up I'll be in a straight-jacket before he's 10! It was great though and got the day off to a brilliant start. We're all very proud of what he does, even if the stress levels get a bit high... Neil McGeachy's done an awesome job shaping a little gem of a climber.

In reply to gramee: The coverage of the Leading Ladder finals this year was equally poor. Other than basic results no real news/reflection on the day. Jonny White and Rachel Carr (a couple of new Youth B GB team members) did really well to win over more established team members, but not a peep.