Team on crushing form, conquering challenges together.
It’s been a busy two weekends for Team Crush, with two boulder comps and the British team trials. It began with the Alpkit bouldering league, Round 2 at our home wall. The problems were set from a completely new perspective: upside down! Literally. The problems suited Billy and Flo down to the ground. Flo finished with her best ever result, 108 points. Billy also got a great result.
Even Alex couldn’t resist having a crack at the handstand start which wasn’t even in his category! Alfie, Ella, Beth G and Beth H, Martha, Joe and Georgia also got great results and thoroughly enjoyed the comp. I was also pleased with my result. Sadly Gracie, who wasn’t impressed with the technical problems, and was recovering from a finger injury didn’t do as well as she’d hoped. However she went well beyond excellence a week later! A big thanks to Alex and the other route setters for setting such bizarre and fun problems, again and again!
The comp was closely followed by the Pod Sac’s bouldering league at the Edge. The Team Crush that attended consisted of Me, Flo, Beth, Beth and Georgia, Joe and Alex. It was another great comp, with 2? places on the podium!
So, with one successful weekend done, we had 1 week of rest before the most important comp (for some of us) of the year: the GB team trials. It was a fab day in Sunderland, a wall many of us had never visited. The routes were again technical, but with length matching Ratho, and a bit of power thrown in. Ex team members Ailsa and Luke climbed really well, Ailsa pushing through and getting to an awesome height. Luke as-per-usual cranking up to the last moves on the hardest climb in the room!
The climb of the day has to be Flo’s second qualifier. It was an epic climb which had everyone on the edge of their seats, sweaty palmed and very impressed! After a few sketchy clips (which she insists she had planned) she made the final lower off. It was a truly inspiring performance. However Flo wasn’t the only team member to top this route. Gracie cruised it, in a slightly less dramatic way to Flo! Billy and Sarah also topped both their qualifiers with relative ease. This put them all into the final.
And so the finals began. Gracie put in an awesome effort, matching Tara’s height (that’s well impressive)! Whilst Billy got out his awesome-ness and finished his final! Sadly so did 4 others. Flo was disappointed with her final climb missing out after a reachy and powerful move. Sarah was last out from team crush, and she sure did crush! She finished her final climb in style.
So now all that was left was for Billy’s supper final! This was on the male junior’s final climb. Luke, who and fallen of the last move told me: ‘they’re gonna struggle on that.’ Billy pulled off some impressive dynos on the slab (don’t ask me how.) only to be kicked off by a popping foot and an incredibly long way!
This comp did nothing, if not show off Team Crush’s crushing power! We had Sarah (1st), Gracie (joint 2nd) and Billy (3rd) on the podium. We had Flo (5th) also in the final. And then there was Tom (6th) (with an injury), Georgia (15th) and me (7th). So all in all an AWESOME effort!!
But now to the important stuff! Who got on the team? I mean the British one, not the crushing one. Well; Billy, Tom and Sarah are still holding their well earned places but joining the ranks are Flo and Gracie! I think this must be saying something about my captaining skills. I’ve been here for, what? Three weeks? And already our British team members have nearly doubled! But honestly guys; if you see them around give them a pat on the back! They truly deserve it!
Naomi Tilley
Team Captain
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