Full Results and Report   Full results can be found on the IFSC website and an extensive report can be found on Robbie Phillips blog	Above: Steven Addison of the Highlander Youth Climbing Club in his first World Champs
British Team Video   Photographer Lukasz Wazecha (LWImages) was commissioned to supply photos which illustrate this article as well as a short video of Team GB which can be found on the Breaking News section of the British Team Page	Above: Jonathan Field goes for it in the Qualifiers
On The Telly The event was filmed by Triple Echo for the Adventure Show with presenters Duncan McCallum and Dougie Vipond who remember the first time the ‘World’s’ came to Scotland … The highlights will be screened on the Adventure Show at the end of January / beginning of February - keep an eye out on thier facebook page .	Above: Sunday morning and the speed finals
Natalie and Kitty route-reading	Above: Robbie Phillips and Ian Smith delivering witty repartee
	Above: Qualifiers Round1 Left: Skippy goes 'walkabout' with the Scots
	Above: Quickdraw Club fundraising stall Left: Natalie Berry on the tough lower section of the semi-final route which saw a lot of failures
Above: Duncan McCallum: Adventure Show Presenter and one of the original 'architects' of the Ratho climbing wall	Above: Kitty Wallace high on the Hanger Wall
Right: Neil McGeachy: Coach to Team GB and MCofS National Coach, recently Honoured at the MCofS AGM
Right: Even at International events there are lots of volunteers required for chaperoning, belaying and judging
Right: Natalie Berry
Right: Paul Williamson
Right: Jonathan Stocking
British Team Rankings:   Female Junior (37) 10th Natalie Berry (SCO) 27th Catherine Whiteman 30th Rebecca hall   Male Junior (65) 17th D Hammer 42nd Robert Mackenzie   Female Youth A (60) 17th Caitlin Wallace 47th Alice Waterhouse 50th Rhoslyn Frugtiniet   Male Youth A (75) 27th Jonathan Stocking (SCO) 30th Paul Williamson (SCO) 36th Jonathan Field (SCO) 33rd Joshua Favel   Female Youth B (60) 38th Eleanor Hopkins (SCO) 39th Sarah Pashlers 41st Rachael Carr (SCO) 49th Lily Rosengard   Male Youth B (69) 37th Jonny White 38th Dylan Mackenzie (SCO) 43rd Steven Addison (SCO) 48th Michael Hopkins	Above: despite Team GB's best efforts, this years World Youth event was dominated by the Europeans, but there were some excellent efforts from other countries

Photos by Lukasz Warzecha (LWImages), Kevin Howett (MCofS), Martin Hopkins

Between Thursday 9^th and Sunday 12^th September the premier (i.e. biggest) climbing competition in the world made its second appearance at EICA: Ratho. Last time the event took place just as Ratho opened its doors in 2004. 300 competitors and their team entourage and families visited and we thought it was a huge event. Some six years later and 366 competitors from 39 competing nations came back for more.

Two of Scotland’s best hopes were too young to compete last time and were looking forward to being able to compete on home turf and for Robert Mackenzie and Natalie Berry, this was their last chance to compete in the event before joining the adult series.

Natalie again showed her strength as one of Britain’s best young competition climbers and despite a lack of training due to injury gained Team GB’s best position with 10^th in her category. Despite cruising the qualifiers she missed out on a crack at the final by just one point after a foot slip high on the semi-final route, but was nonetheless pleased with her result.

Robert has competed at a few world championships and was hoping to make the semi-finals, but at this level it is often about how it goes on the day. Unluckily he miss-held a hold on his qualifier and couldn’t quite make the semi’s. This did however allow him time to make friends with the Australian Team and their mascot! There were regular announcements for the return of their blow-up ‘skippy’.

Other Scottish hopeful Jonathan Stocking managed to fall down the stairs less than a week before the competition and despite this injury managed a very respectable 27^th position leading the British pack in the Male Youth A, just pipping Paul Williams at 30^th and Jonathan Field at 36^th. Both the latter were at a World Championship event for the first time and put in an excellent performance.

Robbie Phillips, a past team GB member now coaching Scottish kids stepped forward to help with comparing the event. Acting as side kick to seasoned presenter Ian Smith he did the Scottish contingent proud and has obvious future talents on radio or TV!

Several team families took the opportunity to holiday in Scotland: the Canadian Team members came early and trained with the Scots on the MCofS prep event the week before and I overheard Australian parents talking about their trip round the north west, amazed that roads could be smaller than the RV they hired!

Comments from members of the Scottish contingent:

Eleanor Hopkins, at her first world event, headed the British pack in the Female Youth B category with 38^th place. Her friend Rachael Carr, also at her first world cup event came 41^st in a world class field of 60 children.

"It was an amazing experience and the atmosphere was really exciting. It was really cool to meet climbers from all over the world. As the comp went on I met more and more and at the end on Sunday I went round with an old Leading Ladder T-shirt collectingas many signatures as I could. I managed to get Momoka Oda's. She had come over from Japan, had come first in her semi-final. In her final on Saturday she missed the first clip and was disqualified, she was lowered off and just curled up in a ball on the mat, it was so sad. She was pleased when I asked her for her signature - that was really nice."
Eleanor

“The Worlds were a really good experience for me. I got to meet lots of new people and climb some amazing routes. The first route was my style of climbing so I did well and got 36^th, but my foot slipped off, low down, on the second route so I only got 41^st. I still feel I did well for my first World championships. The atmosphere between the climbers was great, I even got talking to the girl who came second in my category, Anak. The event was a good memory to have and I hope I get to compete in years to follow.”
Rachel

A Word from our National Coach:

"Every Scottish Climber that took partshould be very proud of theirperformances! In particular it was really exciting to see so many Youth B Scottish climbers hold their nerve and competewell in a very hard category!I think the next few years aregoing to be pretty exciting for Scottish Junior Competition Climbing.A special mention has to be made to Natty B, who rounded off her World Youth Championship career with a top 10 finish in the world!She has genuinely put Scotland on the map with her performances onthe international stage and it was nice to see her finish off in style!Nat has and will continue to be a great role model and inspiration to our countries up and coming rock stars!
In terms ofSport development, we cannot underestimate the impact of holding such an event in Edinburgh!As a coach it was pretty special to see numerous young climbers standing in awe of the performances over the weekend.These youths will be our climbing stars of the future and witnessing such an event at their local wall will raise their levels of expectation and inspire them to set their own goals at an even higher level than the youngsters before them. Thank you very much to EICA: Ratho, MCofS and Event Scotland for organising the best international competition I have ever attended!"
Neil McGeachy

A few words from a volunteer:
Members of the Scottish kids clubs (Quickdraw and Highlander Clubs) were out in force helping with judging and belaying. Martin Hopkins said this about the competition:

"As a volunteer judge, I confess I think I was as nervous as a competitor, I had judgedbeforeat other comps including theEdinburgh European Youth series round at Ratholast year - but judging at the Worlds with all those team managers just waiting to protest your call? In fact, although it was hard work and tiring it was a tremendous experience and the IFSC judges were really supportive. At the end of the event in their feedback the IFSCcommented that the volunteers had been really friendly and professional - job done!
The team at EICA Ratho pulled out all the stops and it really paid off withcompetition organisation which really impressed the International Federation of Sports Climbing officials. They even hada golf buggy on hand to transport finalists from the isolation area to the wall without getting their climbing shoes wet!
As a volunteer judge, I confess I think I was as nervous as a competitor, I had judgedbeforeat different comps including theEdinburgh European Youth series round at Ratholast year - but judging at the Worlds with all those team managers just waiting to protest your call? In fact, although it was really hard work and very tiring it was a tremendous experience and opportunity to learn and the IFSC judges were really supportive. At the end of the event in their feedback the IFSCcommented that the volunteers had been really friendly and professional - job done!"
The IFSC judges set the tone - we were there for the junior climbers, we should only stop them climbing on a safety issue, and if there were questions about what they touched or didn't touch we would let them climband then afterwards advise them that we needed to check the video. The aim was to let them climb while getting a fair ranking of climbers in order of merit. I know we don't always have video available but I thought it a good lesson onjudging at junior comps for all of us."
For eventhe most experienced climbers it can be nerve racking. A Europeanjunior climber, aged 18 or 19, was late getting to the arena. He tied in and sat down. He was next to climb. I pointed down to his flip-flops which were still on his feet, He shrugged and pointed to the climber sitting next to him - who had been there in good time butwas due to climb after the European climber. I pointed at the rope which he was tied into which I thought waskind of a good clue, and then spent the next minute or so trying to calm him down as he frantically tried to get his shoes on and chalk up before the climber on the route came off."

Success for the Europeans
Report from EICA: Ratho

It was a major victory for the European teams taking part in the IFSC World Youth Championships at The Edinburgh International Climbing Arena in Ratho, with particularly strong performances from Germany, Russia and Austria during the 4 day event from 9^th – 11^th September.

Although there were several strong British performances, the competition from all 39 competing nations was just too much, meaning Team GB did not progress beyond the semi-final stage. Natalie Berry was nudged out of the Female Junior lead final by one place after a foot slip high on the semi final route, and Ed Hamer finished a respectable 17^th place.

Among the outstanding athletes of the event were Sebastian Halenke (Germany) who put in a particularly impressive performance to top out on the Male Youth B Lead final route and retain his world title, Dana Riddle (USA) who rose to the occasion in the Female Youth B Speed competition and took a surprise win in a discipline usually dominated by eastern European countries. Finally Sayat Bokanov (Kazakstahn) won the Male Junior speed final in an amazing 7.84 seconds.

Competitors climbed on The Hanger, Speed Wall and North West Wall (original competition wall) throughout the competition and took part in 2 disciplines (Lead or Speed) with six categories in each split into three age groups and by gender.

Graeme Gardiner, Head of The Edinburgh International Climbing Arena, said: “It was an absolute pleasure to host the very best of the world’s indoor climbing talent during this truly spectacular competition. The success of the four day event was due to both the world class facilities at the EICA and the staff and volunteers who ensured the competition ran so smoothly for competitors and spectators alike. It’s not long before the EICA: Ratho opens its doors to another elite climbing competition when the British Lead Climbing Championships takes place on October 10^th – 11^th.”

Paul Bush OBE, Chief Operating Officer for EventScotland agreed, “EICA Ratho, being the largest indoor climbing arena in the world certainly proved to be to perfect stage for the IFSC World Youth Championships. The event enjoyed a large crowd of international supporters who witnessed some of the best up and coming climbers in the world taking part. We hope they all enjoyed their visit and return home with some wonderful memories of their time in Scotland.”

Councillor Steve Cardownie, Festivals and Events Champion for the City of Edinburgh, said: "I'm delighted that the IFSC World Youth Climbing Championships were such a terrific success, with thousands of people flocking to the EICA to witness the finest young climbers in the world competing. Edinburgh has forged a much envied reputation as the ideal destination for top level sporting events like this. Later this week, East Princes Street Gardens is set to become an archery arena for the FITA Archery World Cup Final, rounding off our Super September of sport in Scotland's Capital."

This year’s competition was supported by partners EventScotland and The City of Edinburgh Council and run by Edinburgh Leisure venue, the EICA.

The event is one of three major international sporting events taking place in Edinburgh this September. The 2010 GE Edinburgh ITU Duathlon World Championships and the FITA Archery World Cup Final are also taking place across the city in September.

Find out all about the Scottish Competitors in the British Team HERE

Partners: The IFSC; The Mountaineering Council of Scotland; The BMC
Sponsors: DMM; Mammut; Tiso; EventScotland; Edinburgh City; Edinburgh Leisure