My first route was the grey. It was on the vertical wall and had some long moves. I watched some of the other girls in my category climb it. Some of the short people did really well. This gave me some confidence for my turn. We shared the grey as our first qualifier with Boys B. I was up 21st as we alternated boy/girl to try out the route. The first two clips were easy and after the third it started to get a little reach and the holds were smaller. I climber quite quickly and got to the roof. It got harder again in the roof but I found it really fun. I was getting a little bit pumped at this point so I clipped quickly and carried on over the lip. The next two moves were really big and the holds were not good. I made the first one and clipped before popping to the second last hold. I did an inside flag and went for the top. I was pleased to top it.
There was a short break before we moved on to our second route. It was the green on the right of the main over hang. I was up third. I watched the first two climbers whilst tying into the rope, I felt confident as a lot of the holds looked really good. The start move was like a small section of a bouldering problem, and I thought this was really cool. I started the climb well, climbing fast but carefully. The steepest part of the barrel was really fun but then I had to slow down at the top because the holds got worse. I didn’t want to pop off so I used the side wall to bridge. At one point my feet were almost at the same point as my head. I was soon over the most overhanging part of the climb and onto the more vertical part. At this point there were lots of crimps which I liked. When I was near the top I had a quick rest on a jug and then climbed to the second last hold then jumped for the last hold. I was really happy to have assured myself a place in the final.
We decided to go out for lunch as there was a lot of time before the final. We went to a pub and I had gravy and chips. When we got back to the centre I hung around and waited for isolation to close. In the last five minutes I went to the basement of the centre, which was a bouldering room. We didn’t have long in isolation so I started warming up straight away. There wasn’t much space to do this but it was good enough. After about half an hour we went out for observation. We had the white route on the barrel wall which I was excited about. When I was reading it, it looked ok I read it with Rebecca from Group A. Her route reading skills gave me the confidence I needed.
We went back to isolation and the first climber went out straight away. I was second to last to go out so I carried on warming up. After Izzy had gone to climb, I was called to tie in. I was nervous but excited to try the route.
The first part of the route was fine and I found it quite easy. The roof section was a bit harder as there were a few big moves. When I got around to the more vertical part of the climb I wasn’t very pumped. I went round to some good crimps and clipped the third to top clip. For this next move I got a high foot and threw for a good crimp. I touched the hold but couldn’t grab it and I fell off. I didn’t know what I had done wrong until I watched the video again. I saw that my foot was way too high and there was a better foot hold that I could have used. I was really annoyed as this put in me in sixth place overall and could lose me a place going to Imst for the European Cup as only the top three were guaranteed a place. I felt sad.
Thanks to everyone who helped cheer me up especially to all my friends who supported me. Overall I had a fun day climbing. It is just a shame that I messed up my final climb.
Update: I received an email from Jack (a GB team coach) congratulating me on being selected to go to the EYC in IMST! I am very lucky to get a place.
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