British YCS 2010 Finals

Report by Avril Gall

After weeks of cold weather the sun shone on EICA: Ratho on Saturday 12th June. At 8am the place was buzzing with families who had travelled from all over the UK so that the youngsters could compete in the 2010 finals of the Youth Climbing Series. As they came through the reception area and cast eyes on the arena there was many an exclamation from first time visitors at the ever impressive view.

Neil Mcgeachy and team had been hard at work all week setting an amazing array of routes and problems, the most eye-catching of which were the black and white routes set on the arena’s Speed Wall. After registering and picking up their competition t-shirts the kids were keen to have a look at what faced them

There were 11 regions from Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales, many with a full complement of 18 climbers (3 per age category, boys and girls). In all 187 climbers took part, but because it was EICA they, and their supporters, all had plenty of space to compete and spectate.

The organisers gathered together the vast number of volunteers that is required for such a competition for final briefing and, after an entertaining group warm-up, lead by GB team member Robert Mackenzie, the kids split into their groups and were off.

Each route was demonstrated before the groups started climbing by a member of the GB Climbing team. As they had all been on the podium at previous YCS finals it gave this year’s competitors a chance to imagine where they could be in the future.

The competition was buzzing from the start, and the level of climber commitment apparent from the many spectacular falls particularly among the 14-16 groups when climbing on the Competition and Hanger walls.

Determination too was in abundance, most ably demonstrated by Scotland South 8-10 boy Rory Whyte, who hung onto a tricky pink climb on the side of the Speed Wall for an age as he tried, and finally overcame, a lengthy move. EICA has seldom heard such a roar from spectators as he topped.

As in previous years the 3 boulder problems were unable to sort out any clear winners, but thankfully the routes had been set at such a level that there was no need for any super finals.

The most spectacular route had to be the final 14-16 boys’ route on the Old Competition Wall that saw those lucky enough to reach it standing on top of a round volume staring down at, and at one point waving to, the audience. Thankfully there was a time limit on this climb so all eventually had to leap for the next hold, though few got it.

At the end of the day the effort from the Scotland North and South team climbers resulted in 4 podium places:-

Rory Cargill 2^nd: Boys 8-10
Sofie Hvide 2^nd: Girls 11-13
Alisdair Johnston & Andrew Barr 3^rd =: Boys 14-16

Scotland North came 3^rd in the team event behind the London & South East and Peak Teams, while Scotland South finished 9^th.

Nearly 12 hours after arriving at EICA climbers were packing up their kit to go home, most content they had done their best, but some wishing that they had ‘just gone for it’ and maybe achieved a bit more. Everyone agreed it had been an amazing day, at a terrific venue and that they couldn’t wait to start training for next year.

YCS 2010 British Final Results can be found HERE