Last weekend saw the Climbing Works International Festival (CWIF) take place in Sheffield.

The festival, an international bouldering competition at The Climbing Works indoor bouldering wall, attracted over three hundred competitors. The finals provided some amazing action with a range of problems that tested the strength, skills and tenacity of all the climbers.

"I would just like to thank the Climbing Works team and staff for making it happen. It brings so much climbing pleasure to a lot of people."

In the Men's category, the only non-UK based climber in the final, Jernej Kruder of Slovenia, became CWIF champion with a display of immense power, strength and finesse. The British contingent had knocked out some big names in the Semi's but in the Final, Jernej showed why he may just be the strongest man in Slovenia (and one to watch in the coming years on the world competition scene).

In the Women's final, The Climbing Works' very own mild mannered receptionist, Katy Whittaker triumphed by the narrowest of margins over Melanie Sandoz of France. Katy sealed her win by flashing problem number 4 but it could have been oh so different if Melanie had managed to hold the cut loose / swing on problem number 3.

The final results are shown in the image below:

Brian McAlinden of the Climbing Works made a final comment:

"The Climbing Works would like to thank everyone for coming down to watch and take part. We ended up having over 300 competitors for the qualifiers and, for the finals we had people standing in the car park looking through the windows to catch a glimpse of the bouldering! It was indeed a packed-out arena. Over the course of the weekend we also raised over £1000 for the Andy Earl charity which is a fantastic effort from everyone. Andy was watching the live streaming and thoroughly enjoyed watching the competition, especially Graeme wearing his 'beloved' Newcastle shirt. Thanks to everyone who donated some cash."

VIDEO: CWIF Finals

The Climbing Works will have a more detailed report, more photos and more video as the week goes on so keep an eye on www.climbingworks.com.

A big thank you also to Scarpa, Outdoor Research, Holdz, Berghaus for giving prizes for the raffle that helped raise so much money.

UKC would also like to thank David Simmonite for the photographs to go with this report.