would be nice to show the results for all the GBR team members. In particular, Ben West did brilliantly, only missing the semi-finals cut by a whisker.
Until watching that comp I hadn't been aware Ondra suffered from the curse of dry hands. I'm thinking the setters are going to be using more of those smooth slippy holds that caught him out, in the hope of exploiting this weakness, to give the others a chance.
I remember an Ondra interview a while back where mentioned dry skin. He said something like you can train really hard, get everything just perfect and then one thing, like dry skin, can ruin it all. So I take it he doesn't always suffer with dry skin. I also couldn't help thinking when watching the comp that he might well have won it were it not for this issue. Particularly problem 3, which looked like it might have suited him more but not if the friction on your hands is reduced to pull on those slopey holds.
From my experience, I guess what he's getting at is that the dry hands thing is more of a problem on some day than others. The normal condition factors of temperature and humity that effect everyone can have a disproportionate effect on some one with dry hands. Most times it is possible to bring your hands into condition with a mix of spit and chalk and a good warm-up but some days you get all the friction of glass against glass. You could sense his frustration on problem 3, he obviously must have had a glassy hands days.
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