British Bouldering Championships 2011
Rachel Carr takes Second in British Bouldering Championships
Rachel Carr (14) finished in second place in the Junior category (12-16 years) at the British Bouldering Championships in London in January 2011. In only her second year in the competition and only 3 months after picking up the Lead Climbing Championship, Rachel demonstrated her all-round abilities to top 3 of the final routes before coming up against a tricky yellow problem that only winner Tara Hayes managed to conquer. Rachel said “The competition was part of the Outdoor Show at the Excel centre and when we weren’t climbing in the Final we had to sit facing the massive crowd of spectators. My first 3 final’s problems went relatively smoothly. I had an amazing response from the crowd when I topped the 3rd problem as this involved a massive dyno (leap) and no one else had topped it before me. Unfortunately I just couldn’t master the final route so had to settle for 2nd place. Given that I didn’t even make the final last year and still have 2 more years in this category I am very pleased with this” Rachel Carr Background 1. Rachel Carr lives in Blackhall in Edinburgh and is in her third year at the Royal High School. 2. She has been climbing competitively since 2008 and is a member of the Quickdraw Climbing Club. 3. She primarily climbs at Edinburgh International Climbing Arena (EICA) and is coached by Neil McGeachy. 4. She was selected for the GB Climbing Team in January 2010 and retained her place for 2011. 5. She won the Under 16 Recreational Female category at the 2010 BMC Leading Ladder finals in April. 6. She came 41st in the Youth B category of the 2010 World Youth Climbing Championships which were held at EICA: Ratho in September 7. She won the Youth B category of the British Lead Climbing Championships in October 2010. 8. She received a sports award from the Blackhall Children’s Sports Committee in 2009 and 2010 to help with her training and travel to competitions and receives support from Edinburgh Leisure, Tiso and staff at EICA, Ratho. 9. The Mountaineering Council of Scotland (MCofS) organise and support youth climbing competitions in Scotland 10. The British Mountaineering Council (BMC) organises and supports UK-wide youth climbing competitions and supports the GB Climbing Team. 11. Youth Climbing is a popular sport throughout the world. In European and World level competitions climbers compete across 4 age categories – Youth C (12/13), Youth B (14/15), Youth A (16/17) and Junior (18/19). Males and Females compete separately. Competitors are classified according to the year in which they were born. 12. The British Bouldering Championships is divided into two categories – Senior 17+ and Junior 12-16. The qualification round involves climbers undertaking 10 problems with 3 attempts on each. Points are awarded if the climber reaches the top. 10pts on first attempt, 7 second and 4 third. In the final there are 4 problems. The person topping the most problems in the fewest attempts wins. 13. Bouldering problems are climbed without ropes on walls set at different angles and up to 20ft high. Combinations of holds and volumes are set to test climbers’ strength, balance and power.
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The BBCs 2010 took place in the middle of a leafy Sheffield park during a sunny day June 2010. The boulder wall was shaded by a circus tent and the spectators sat on their picnic rugs and cooked on barbeques. Six months later the BBCs 2011 were being hosted by the Outdoor Show at the Excel Centre in London’s Docklands on a cold and wet January weekend. The Bouldering wall was dwarfed by the huge exhibition space.
The Juniors had been scheduled for the Sunday but we were lucking to arrive in time to see the Senior finals on the Saturday evening turning up to hear that Natalie Berry had made it through. Unfortunately our representatives in the senior male event hadn’t been able to garner the 94 points required to qualify for that final. Calum Forsyth, still not 100% with continuing growth plate problems, achieved a credible 20 points for 46th place, while Robbie Phillips with 60 points was 18th out of a pool of 55. Given that many of the competitors train only on boulders these two predominantly lead climbers could be proud of their achievements.
Natalie, again known for her leading over her bouldering, climbed well among a posse of GB Boulder team members, topping her final problem to secure herself 4th place, but the star of the evening was Shauna Coxsey who made all of the problems with ease demonstrating why she chose to move over from the GB Junior Climbing team to the GB Senior Bouldering team last year.
Sunday dawned wet and foggy. Boys were first and the 40 competitors swarmed the stage to complete the 10 problems in the 2 hours allotted. Tactics varied with some sending the four easiest problems in their first 10 minutes. Others walked around sussing each problem and deciding in which order they should be attempted; leave a hard problem to the end and you may be too tired, use up your energy on 3 hard attempts without success and you may not top an easier problem first go and loose points.
Friends went round and discussed moves, watched successful tops in the hope that they could replicate the moves and studied falls in the hope of avoiding the same dangers. For spectators there was the occasional hiatus as competitors gathered their remaining strength before the next problem, but it soon became clear which were the tricky problems and cheers would go up when the first top was made.
It was impossible to tell who had made the finals until the top 8 were announced. Unfortunately Edinburgher Fraser McIlwraith (14) who had topped 8 with one problem left fell heavily off his first attempt fracturing and dislocating his arm and ending his first championship endeavour. Despite this he finished 9th. Fellow Scot Angus Davidson (12) finished with 70pts (16th) and Jamie Drummond (15) scored 64 pts (25th). As the first foray for each of them they all vowed to return next year.
Rachel Carr (14) was the only Scottish girl to take part and having achieved 12th place last year had her sights set on the final. With Seniors Natalie Berry and Robbie Phillips providing advice and support she topped 6 problems with relative ease before coming a cropper on a nigh impossible pink dyno that only one competitor (Ellie Rymer) topped.
Further problems on volume-holds saw her finish with 60 points and an agonising wait for the announcement of the finalists. Unlike the closely grouped boys where final qualification scores ranged from 84 to 90 the girl finalists qualified with a points range 48 to 81.
Whereas the Senior finalists had all come out at once and climbed one at a time, the Junior boys and girls were brought out in reverse order and climbed a problem then rested.
With 5 minutes to attempt each problem things ticked over at speed and towards the top of the pack every problem was full. Topping first go meant you had the remaining minutes plus your 5 minute rest period to sit facing the spectators – a nerve wracking prospect which all the youngsters took in their stride.
The girls’ first problem posed a problem to a few of the climbers but most topped first go. The second was a reach to a small hold that had even the top qualifiers struggling. From the audience viewpoint dynos are always exciting and the 3rd problem with its two handed grab then tricky balance flummoxed all until Rachel stuck it first go.
The final problem saw the first 6 girls fail to reach the bonus hold then Molly Thompson Smith showed that it was possible but unfortunately couldn’t take it all the way to the end. Tara Hayes the first qualifier held her nerve through to the end with a polished final climb to take the title with 4 tops. Rachel with 3 tops finished second with Molly in third with two tops. As these three also form part of the Youth B GB Climbing Squad they will no doubt continue to share podiums throughout the year.
