Tuesday 29 April 2008

Hall

The 18th of April was the first round of the world cup in Austria. There were 140 people registered to compete making this the biggest world cup to date.

We headed into isolation at midday ish then sat around for ages getting psyched out by how strong everyone else was. Croxall and the Watsonator were lucky and were out early after only an hour or so. The rest of us had to wait for ages (Roddy having something like an 8 hour wait!)

I warmed up and felt strong. My skin was quite good and I felt like I could pull pretty hard (although not as hard as most of the beasts there!).

I was called and went to climb and was rubbish. I can’t put my finger on why but I was missing loads of tricks and being stupid. I never felt like I could get into a position to pull hard which is really frustrating.
On the plus side (although not really!) the others struggled a bit too. This made me feel a bit better as maybe it was a style thing rather than me just being rubbish. Only Gaz made the semis.

The final was impressive. Daniel woods is probably the strongest guy I have ever seen. His strength was amazing and really inspiring, but his balance, footwork and flexibility were all a bit behind! That didn’t bother him as he crushed his way to 3rd.

After the comp the party kicked off. It was a good laugh and cheered us all up after climbing badly! After a late night and an early start we got back to england and i went straight to bed.

CWIF

Ed told me to get this updated as he needs something to do at work… Hi Ed!

The climbing works had a nice comp the other week. It was good fun with some hard probems.

I managed to squeeze into the semi final, but only did one problem (close on 1 other) so ended up in 10th place. I was pleased to make the semis as it was good preparation for the coming internationals. I felt fit and was recovering well between attempts, but the problems were dirty hard so I couldn’t do them. Gangle was a beast and finished 6th despite claiming to be rubbish! Smitton was a beast and won, beating Earl and Wouter (the Dutch champion) in the final. Very impressive.

After the comp I ate a raw burger and didn’t get ill which was an achievement, then went to hang with Dan and the strong aussies.