Last weekend the first round of the European Youth Series 2015 took place in Dornbirn, Austria. Representing Great Britain was a 10-strong team of youth climbers looking to make a good start to the 2015 season. 

16 year-old Jim Pope and 15 year-old Hannah Slaney both made the finals with top ten finishes. Jim qualified in 7th place for the finals and finished in 9th and Hannah maintained her 10th position in both rounds.

Jim told UKC:

"I was thrilled to get into the finals at the first competition of the season and I hope to improve on my result in the following rounds and the World Youth Championships later in the year."

Hannah commented:

"I'm so happy to have got through to the finals of the first EYC of the year. It was a great wall, great comp and now I made a top 10, I look forward to try and better my results in the Europeans to come!"

Junior GB Team manager Ian Dunn commented on the team's performance as a whole: 

"The Team did really well as we had 3 climbers making their European debuts. Hannah Slaney put a tremendous performance in on both qualifiers making her second EYC final to go with her semifinal in last years WYC, and she has just moved into Youth A - a great example to the Team of what hard work and training can do. Jim Pope showed why he is one of the UK's best lead comp climbers by putting in a solid performance to make another final. Overall a fantastic weekend and a pleasure to take a great bunch of climbers away to represent Great Britain."

The first round was one of three stages of the series, the next being in Imst, Austria at the end of this month. The team will also compete at the European Youth Championship at Edinburgh International Climbing Arena in June and in the World Youth Championships in Arco, Italy in August.

Full results here.

Visit the GB Climbing Teams' website.

Jim is sponsored by: Climb Skin, Lyon Outdoor and Marmot

Hannah is sponsored by: 3rd Rock and La Sportiva