English Bouldering Champs 2022: Round-Up
With almost 400 competitors in attendance, it was an incredible start to the series and showcased how much up and coming talent we have here. Not only were there future hopefuls, there was also a strong representation from our GB Climbing athletes as they took the opportunity to test their skills one final time on home turf before setting off to compete on the international stage next month.
The format differed slightly to previous competitions, with qualifications a scramble format with 2.5 hours to attempt all boulders and a maximum of five attempts on each boulder. The top six competitors from qualifiers would advance to the final, which had the standard format four boulders with four minutes per boulder. This format applied to all categories, Youth D through to Senior, and we’d like to give a huge shout out the younger competitors for their exceptional composure and enthusiasm as they tackled the structured final format, something which many will of experienced for the first time in their competitive journey.
The huge mix of abilities, from people having fun to the top-level athlete, made for fantastic qualification rounds. Watching everyone getting stuck, have fun and help one another, really highlighted the strength and psyche of the competition community. The route setters worked tirelessly to put on a spectacular show of problems which had the crowd cheering and gasping all the way through.
It was great to see such an enthusiastic response to the first event in the newly created All Nations Series, we’re especially psyched to see the community come together and share their experience, no matter their ability and take part to celebrate competition climbing and witness the inspiring talent to come. An enormous thank you to Rock Over Climbing for hosting and working tirelessly to accommodate us and to the volunteers for taking time out of their weekend to help make this competition happen and of course the competitors for their efforts. Now we can’t wait to do it again at the next events:
26-27 March – English Bouldering Championships (Rockover Manchester)
30 April – Scottish Youth Bouldering Championships (Youth only)
7-8 May – Welsh Bouldering Championships (Roc-Bloc Cardiff)
14-15 May – Irish Bouldering Championships
Hope to see you there!
