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destination:
Climb Newcastle Spring Boulder Open, Byker,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne
when: 24 April '09
reported by Tim Staton:
The format was the same as most comps - A circuit of 35
Routes with tech grades from 3-7c+ with 10/7/4 or 1
point being awarded depending on whether you ‘flash’ the
route or take a little longer to ‘send’ it. With the top
four male and female climbers being put into isolation.
It all kicked off around 1pm and finished at 8:30pm
giving competitors loads of time. So not wanting to put
too much of that ‘competition’ pressure on myself I
started at 14:00. The routes all looked pretty good and
I managed to flash most of the easier ones, getting
myself a good 120 points within the first hour. After
that I took it a little easier with plenty of rests
after the qualifier was over. Although I’d not got
enough points to go into the final round, I did earn 244
points, which put me, 18th overall.
By 8:30pm the scorecards were in, and while Andy
frantically reset final problems in the pool area, the
finalists were announced. In the men's event Irishman
Nigel Callender was looking a little nervous but out in
front, closely followed by Mark Glennie, 15-year-old
Jamie Naden and lunchtime regular Rich Gill. Young Dan
Walton took great advantage of the 1pt rule (for more
than three goes) to catch up with Rich and force a five
person final. In the female category it was Karin Magog
out in front, with two juniors Kate Watson and Beth
Walton just behind, Helen Senior in 4th and thanks to
Dan's extension of the final format, Rachel Hoyland made
up the 5th of the finalists.
In the Men’s final, the routes were pretty tough; over
on the left of the pool there was a double dyno for 2
pinches in the middle of the 45 degree board, followed
by an equally powerful move for the finish. Problem 2
was no easy feat either but more technical, a weird
start up to a slap/sloper then an interesting move to
match the finish. Men's Problem 3 was the ultimate comp
problem, a problem with everything...a tough roof
section was followed by some swinging about, leading to
a full on mantle of a flat volume. Once stood up the
'gap of doom' awaited, a committing fall onto the
sidewall that could easily have led to broken noses! And
if that wasn't enough there was campussing across two
volumes and a big finishing move to contend with!
The Women’s final was just as challenging. On the 20
degree board was a nice technical route on small ‘snake
like’ crimps and a committing ‘pop’ to the final move.
With Problem 2 you really needed to know how to plan
your ascent, with a tricky start to a misleading couple
of moves then a rock over to finish. Problem 3 was
almost as hard as the Men’s Final problem; coming off
the roof with a tricky move to a few powerful moves onto
a volume.
Male:
1 Nigel Callender (330)
2 Rich Gill (328)
3 Mark Glennie (320)
4 Jamie Naden (310)
5 Dan Walton (308)
18 Tim Staton (244)
Female:
1 Karin Magog (288)
2 Beth Walton (248)
3 Helen Senior (240)
4 Kate Watson (258)
5 Rachel Hoyland (228)
Run by Andy Earl and Chris
Graham, Climb Newcastle is a fantastic place to go
bouldering, we will be back there soon..
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