The last round of the SIBL, held on the 24th January 2010 at The Arch, was another great competition. Over 100 competitors turned up to have a go on the problems skilfully set by the team at The Arch as well as Gaz Parry.

This year saw competitors battle it out on all types of problems including one where you had to use Rock Rings to traverse across which proved very popular. The strong guys and girls were there and they soon started to dispatch the harder of the problems. The Arch is a great venue and because of its size allows competitors to interact much more with each other and it was great to see the likes of Kitty Wallace among others ready to give advice and tips to the younger more inexperienced competitors.

Once again the ever impressive Evolution team were in attendance with some of their super-talented youngsters climbing very well. One in particular, Barnaby Ventham, managed to all of his problems within two hours. Barnaby is definitely someone to look out for in the future. We had a great turn out from new competitors as well with many on their first visit to a SIBL event.

When time was up, the Male Junior category was tied for 1st place and so another head-to-head was held to split the winners. After climbing two routes to decide who finished in what position, it was declared that The Arch round would go to Barnaby Ventham closely followed by Ed Ratcliff and Sebastian Powderham. Another tie in the Female Open for third place resulted in Emily Garrod and Clara Vergez going head-to-head on two problems after which a clear winner couldn't be found so it was agreed these two would share third place. A special mention should go to 12 year old Izzy Cooke who finished third in the Female Junior category.

The main head-to-head followed the same rules as before with the top five Open scores competing on a long traverse route skilfully set by Gaz and Clem. Five competitors were run through the route and then sent into isolation. Peter Wycislik was up first but came off just after the start on the no-hands traverse across the slab. Peter took it well and watched on as the other competitors each took it in turns to work out the sequence on what looked like a desperately hard traverse on volumes and small holds. Suzie Zitter, Tiffany Soithongsuk and Sam Cox all came off at the same point, a hard move with each competitor trying a different technique to overcome it. Finally Bodley Zhang stepped up and managed a little further to take the lead but came unstuck a hold or two later.

The final results for the competition were:

Male Open

1. Bodley Zhang 180
2. Sam Cox 177
3. Peter Wycislik 174

Female Open

1. Suzie Zitter 177
2. Tiffany Soithongsuk 167
3. Clara Vergaz / Emily Garrod 150

Male Junior

1. Barnaby Ventham 200
2. Ed Ratcliff 200
3. Sebastian Powderham 200
   (Places decided by climb off)

Female Junior

1. Kitty Wallace 200
2. Storme Biggs 197
3. Isabelle Cooke 177

Head to head winner

Bodley Zhang

SIBL would like to thank all the staff at The Arch including Fred and Clem for all there hard work running up to the competition and indeed on the day as well as Gaz Parry for his help with the route setting. I'd also like to thank Ben Moon for his generous support in providing the prizes.

To read more on the round and see the pictures from it visit www.sibl.co.uk
 
Climb On!
Sam Johnson
SIBL Organiser

The SIBL 2009/10 series is sponsored by UKClimbing.com / DMM / Wild Country / Lyon / La Sportiva / Julbo / Petzl / Moon / Metolius / Evolv / Epic Adventures and Dream Holds.