And the winners are...
Round two of the ClimbScotland Youth Climbing Series (YCS) took place on Saturday 28 February 2016 at Avertical World (Scotland South) and at Inverness Leisure (Scotland North). With over 100 young climbers taking part, we had a fantastic day of climbing and bouldering. Read on for the full low down on the day's events.
The three regional rounds of the YCS are a great chance for young climbers to have their first go at a competition in a FUN environment, testing their bouldering and rope climbing skills against each other. The top three in the series go on to compete for their region in the YCS final held at EICA Ratho on 23rd April 2016 against 300 climbers from around the UK!
YCS Round Two: Scotland South
54 climbers turned out for our second round in Dundee where the categories were once again hotly contested.
Only David Miedzybrodzki and newcomer Jack McKechnie in youth A boys category flashed all their routes and problems, which meant our first super final for the year. After the routesetters had finished setting a long, meandering bouldering problem, David triumphed to take top slot.
In Youth B and Youth C girls there was a change around in podium positions compared to round one with Emma Davidson and Caitlin Connor taking top spot. This means that both these categories are still wide open going into round three. In the rest of the categories with double wins those in first place are virtually guaranteed a place in the finals, but the remainder of the podium positions are less clear with five boys in Youth B vying for the three team spots available.
As usual the climbers all had a great time, meeting and making friends with other climbers from across the region. We are looking forward to the next round at
Glasgow Climbing Centre in
Glasgow on
19 March 2016.
YCS Round Two: Scotland North
The second round of the Youth Climbing Series took place at the
Inverness Leisure. There were 51 kids taking part and this was by far the largest number of competitors seen at a Scotland North round for many years. Although many had competed at round one, there were many who would be taking part for the first time.
Climbing got under way after a quick warm up routine from Rory Cargill.
In the Youth E girls Charlotte Reynolds was the only one to top the second route, allowing her to take first place and put her sister Victoria into second. This leaves an interesting round three where the overall first place could go to either sister. In the Youth E boys, Reuben Langlands once again showed his style to take first place ahead of Benin Hay.
In the Youth D girls Emma Heslop was the only one of the girls to top her second route and boulder, putting her well in front of the others with the next four competitors only having four points between them. Although Emma is currently clear in front overall, second and third place could go to any of the others. With another strong performance, Duncan Brown again took first place in the Youth D boys. A good performance by Euan Loynd saw him take second place and put him in second place overall, just ahead of Zaigham Askari.
Amazing Performance
Youth C girl, Zara Whiteside again took first place, but it was newcomer Emma Rendall who put in an amazing performance to take second place despite only having her first lead climb two weeks earlier. The second member of the Langlands team, Louis was the only climber of the day to top all of their routes. Well in front of the other Youth C boys, it was a great performance. There will be a close fight at round 3 between Quinn Louw, Sandy Bond and Cian Beattie as there are not many points between them.
Emma Halliwell was the only Youth B girl to top all of her boulder problems. Topping both of her first two routes Emma along with all of the girls, found it impossible to get more than a few moves off the ground on the third. She had however done enough to get into first place again. Rhys Langlands once again found himself battling against Stephen Keir in the Youth B boys. Their route scores were very close, but Rhys showed his strength in the bouldering with three tops to open up his lead.
Managed to close the gap
In the Youth A girls, Amy Ryan, Erin Geddes and Lilia Lee all upped their game and made big increases in their scores from round one, but although Erin managed to close the gap by one point, the order stayed the same with Amy taking 1st place. In the smallest category of the day, the Youth A boys, Jamal Ronald found he actually had someone to compete against this time. Finley Tams-Gray put up a good fight for his first appearance at a YCS competition, but it was Jamal who took first place.
Thanks to
Inverness Leisure for hosting and providing the prizes for the day. Round Three: Scotland North will take place at
Ice Factor on
19 March 2016. We look forward to another action-packed day of climbing there!
The Youth Climbing Series is supported by Allcord who have supplied Tendon ropes for the competition this year.
