The day after the climbing was the first youth bouldering open. The qualifiers consisted of 8 problems which you had five goes to complete and 3 problems in the final. I was gutted when I saw that most of my problems were vertical. Just what I hate! The bell went to start the qualifiers and I was third up on the easiest problem which I flashed easily. I then went to the over end of the wall and did another easy problem although it had a dyno last move that was quite hard if you were short. The next problem was a roof with a hard crimp move out of it. I climbed up to the move and slapped to the next hold! To my surprise I stuck it and topped the problem flash! I then went to the over end of the wall and flashed another easy problem before having a go at the problem I was most scared of. It was a slab with terrible feet which you had to stand on! I got on to the problem praying for my feet not to pop! I inched my body up and placed my foot on the next foothold it was better and I stood up and matched the finishing holds! It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. The next problem was a vertical wall with lovely triangle slopers. To my surprise I cruised it and actually enjoyed doing a technical problem for once! That was it the easy stuff was over! The next problem was a vertical wall with a horrible sloper at the top which I had to match and a dyno for the finishing jug! I fell on my first go but gave the holds a good brush and sent it on my second! The last problem to be done was a steep wall with a really hard move into a undercut. After three goes I couldn't reach the undercut and fell off! My fourth go came and I went for the hold and stuck it but then, when moving my feet, my hand slipped and I fell! The fifth go was rubbish and I finished qualifying with 7 tops which was enough to get me into the final!
To make a long story short isolation was hell! 5 hours in a dark section of the bouldering wall with 30 other climbers! As the time went by the nerves got worse. After all the other age groups, except junior male, had gone out it was our turn to climb. The first couple of finalists came back and said that they flashed the problem and it was easy so the pressure was huge! I ran out, keen to get on the problem after a quick brush I got on, climbed the first bit easily and I just stuck the last move! Same again for the next problem but I felt even more pressure because if I screwed this up I wouldn't get in the bouldering team! Once again I ran out and brushed the holds. The first few move were easy and I got to the lip of the roof and campused to the next hold but I couldn't reach it! I came back down to the previous hold and campused again and managed to get the next hold. This was the last hard move and I topped the problem to my relief! For the final problem I was even more nervous because it was all or nothing! I came out of isolation totally psyched and ready to crush. I took a deep breath and pulled on. I got the second hold which was really bad, matched and cranked through to the undercut. I climbed out of the roof and reached the bonus hold. This is were I got stuck after trying various methods I couldn't get past that point. To my huge surprise this was enough to get me second place!! After William who only beat me on count back! I was really happy with this because there were loads of strong climbers in the final!
Yesterday I found out that I was selected for both the GB lead team and the GB boulder team!! Bring on 2013!!
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