British Bouldering and British Lead Competitions 2009
Young Scottish Climbers Scoop the Honours

Report by Kevin Howett
Development Officer

Johnathan Stocking and Natalie Berry continue to dominate the British competitions and Jonathan Field gains a podium place:

· BBC at the Cliffhanger Festival in Sheffield 11^th & 12^th July: Jonathan Stocking retained his title as British Bouldering Champion.
· BLCC at Ratho on 18^th July: Jonathan retained his title in the Male Juniors for the 3^rd year running.
· BLCC at Ratho on 18^th July: Natalie Berry gained 1^st in the Female Seniors category.

In the BBC Jonathan Stocking regained his title as British Bouldering Champion with Jonathan Field coming second.It was a great weekend at the Cliffhanger and Jonathan Stocking was interviewed for Sky TV which will be shown in September sometime. He went on the following weekend to retain his championship title in the lead competition.

Jonathan’s Mum, Lorraine commented: “The highlight has to be the BLCC which Jonathan won again for the third year in a row. He climbed his socks off and made it look so easy.I am sure the route setters all had a bet to see if he would top all their routes (which he did).This year there were climbers from abroad as well which was great for Jonathan as he knew he had to pull it out of the bag: after all the British Championship title needs to stay in Britain and he didn't let us down.”

It is hard to get to the top of any chosen sport but especially so in climbing in this country which has little financial support, and sponsorship for the athletes is thin on the ground. Both Jonathan’s (Stocking and Field) and Natalie have this year gained a bursary from the MCofS to help their competition climbing and training, and additionally for Jonathan Stocking to help fund a trip to sample real rock across Europe.

Lorraine said, “To stay at the top and sustain it for three years in a row is amazing and very hard to do. It just shows the amount of hard work that he has put into his training and climbing.”

Jonathan has just left on his European tour with friend and climbing partnerNeil McGeachy. Neil was until recently the MCofS’s Area Youth Coordinator, works at EICA Ratho and is now Coach to Scottish members of the British Team (which included Jonathan and Natalie last year).

Lorraine commented on his climbing, “I think the variety that Jonathan does within climbing has helped and that he doesn't get bored doing the same thing. That's why he is climbing so much outdoors now as this is what he loves doing and he is doing so well with it too.”

You can read about Jonathan and Neil’s training in Scotland for their big trip to the Italian Dolomites to climb one of the classic hard routes of the Cima Grand on the MCofS kids pages website. See: ‘North East Esoterica’ on the Get Active Kids Features page HERE

Natalie enjoyed competing on home turf and commented, “I was very pleased to win the event and had been looking forward to it after training hard since an operation in April which meant I had to rest for 4 weeks. The event itself had a fantastic atmosphere and the home crowd definitely spurred me on to perform at my best. The routes were of excellent quality and the new Entre-Prises competition wall provided competitors with an exciting challenge and proved itselfworthy of hosting international competitions. Topping out on my final route to the support of a home crowd is an experience that I will never forget!”

After the BLCC Natalie flew out to France to meet up with a lot of her climbing friends from across Europe.Her mum Sue said, “She’s at Gorges du Loup, and she sent me a text earlier to say she did a 7c+, so was pleased with that!”

Both young climbers have shown great talent over the past few years and there seems no stopping them.

Jonathan Field also did well in the BLCC taking a 4^th place against a strong field of young climbers from across Britain, proving how far he has come this past year since leaving the Youth Climbing Series.

He enjoyed both the BBC and the BLCC comps. He had this to say, “At the BBC I surprised myself how close it was between me and Jonny (Stocking). The atmosphere during the final was really tense and I was pleased to have come 2^nd.

The BLCC was tense too. I had to do well because there were only two places left for British climbers to be selected to the European Youth Series competition in September and I was competing for one of them. I didn't do as well as I hoped in the second qualifier but I did well enough to get into the final. I am pleased with 4^th place (or 3^rd in Britain - an Israeli took 2^nd place) and I am delighted to have been selected for the EYS in Ratho as well as the one in Munich the weekend before. These will be the first international competitions that I will compete in so I am psyched to do well in them.

Jonathan’s dad, David commented on how the two friends (‘Jonny F’ and ‘Jonny S’) performed, “The BBC made exciting viewing for us. Both boys were very close all the way through the final and whipped up a lot of excitement for the crowd. We were proud of Jonathan doing so well and it was a reward for all the training he has put in recently.
Likewise the BLCC was exciting viewing especially as we were really hoping that Jonathan would be selected for the EYS. It was good to see him do so wellin a competition at this level. It's always nice to see how each competitor encourages his/her team mates; the atmosphere was really motivating. Jonathan was thrilled to be selected. It will spur him on, and motivate him to keep training hard"

With the BLCC being held in Scotland there were quite a few of the leading Scottish kids competing including Ellen Macaskill, Eleanor Hopkins, Jessica McCaskey, Jaime Davidson and Nikki Addison; Paul Williams, Calum Forsyth, Alasdair Johnston and Stephen Addison.

 

British Lead Climbing Championship Results for Scottish Competitors: Female Junior: 4th Ellen Macaskill 6th Eleanor Hopkins 13th Jessica McCaskey 14th Jaime Davidson 19th Nikki Addison Male Junior: 1st Jonathan Stocking 4th Jonathan Field 10th Paul Williamson 12th Calum Forsyth 14th Alasdair Johnston 20th Stephen Addison Female Senior: 1st Natalie Berry Male Senior: 4th Alan Cassidy 8th Ross Kirkland 11th Robbie Phillips

British Bouldering Championships Results for Scottish Competitors Female Junior: 5th Ellen Macaskill Male Junior: 1st Jonathan Stocking 2nd Jonathan Field 9th Paul Williamson Male Senior: 5th Roddy Mackenzie     For Full Results see the BMC Competitions Pages HERE