Edinburgh! It begins to feel familiar to me. 😉 We had a nice team full of young, new climbers and I was so glad to be the oldest in the team. 🙂 That’s totally different from the first time I went along, being a little girl and the youngest myself.
But I have experienced that competition on itself always stays the same. On every level or age it is hard and exhausting. You need the same perseverance and dedication when you are a kid or a professional. For me, it feels exactly the same. Maybe there is a difference in how nervous I am and how blocked my stomach is during breakfast, but the feeling is identical.
The first route had some terrible moves just in the beginning. I was so glad that I got safely through this part and I topped out just in time.
In the second route every one knew they had to speed up, not to get a time-out. Except the very first climbers who climbed it as usual, discovered their time-out when they came down. That happened to my friend Celine, who had to climb 3rd to climb in youth A. 🙁
After the qualifications I was tied with Jessica, we had topped out both the routes.
Sunday was the big day and I felt more nervous than usual. That was not nice, but it’s so hard to stop that feeling.
Now that we moved to the Juniors, we mostly climb at the end and we have lots of time in isolation. I really like that! 🙂 Especially having enough time for warming up is something very pleasant.
Our route was one only for our category and it looked fairely logical. There was one move which looked like a jump, but I thought the holds would be allright, so that the jump would not be too hard.
I started the route quite confident and not too stressed. The beginning went well and was not that hard and then I arrived at what looked as a jump. I clipped a quickdraw above my head, but then realised that it would probably hinder me when I had to jump. So I unclipped it, something I’ve never done in a competition before. 😉
Then I went for it with my left hand only, leaving my feet on the holds. When touching the hold I realised this was not the right way. So I fell into the previous holds again… with a little scream, or maybe not a very little one. I had been really afraid to fall out and just hung there recovering a bit and concentrating again on the move. I really wanted to make it, so then I jumped with all I had. With both my hands this time… I was relieved I had made it, but from that moment on I had lost a bit of my confidence and it was hard to keep on going. I went on and on, trying to recuperate all the time. Then I came at the end of the roof and I made the move to get out of the overhang. When I did it, I heard the public cheering loudly and I was a little surprised. I really thought Jessica and maybe others before me had topped the route. I did the last moves and clipped the last quickdraw and I was really amazed that I had topped out. It all felt like in a dream. When I came down I heard that I had won! I was so thankful because I knew I could have fallen at the jump…
Jessi was 2nd and Salomé and Julia were tied on the 3rd place.
After the competition, I had some very nice chats with other climbers. It was so heart-warming to get congratulations and hugs of my friends. 🙂
This is a movie of the finals:
