For the last day of Roses, the climbing tournament kicked off for a long day of testing routes. The competition is first organised into teams, where everyone climbed the twenty routes that were available of varying difficulties. The overall aim was to get to the top of each route in as few attempts as possible. Those who did so would qualify for the individual rounds while the collective number of attempts and routes climbed formed the team scores. It was apparent by lunchtime after the team qualifiers that Lancaster had lost both categories; we only had one final hope. Lancaster had only a single member through to the Men’s Individual category.
Those top five people in the women’s and men’s teams then went head to head in the afternoon portion of the competition. Here, the competition became far more intense, as it was a race to complete the highest number of bouldering problems in the least amount of time. Suddenly the atmosphere switched from a collaborative, relaxed session to a mesmerising focus on a single individual. With only 4 minutes per problem, and as 9 out of the 10 participants in the final were from York, the pressure built on Lancaster. Luckily, Lancaster pulled through the win one out of the three fixtures of the day.
Men’s Team- York Won
Women’s Team- York Won
Men’s Individual- Lancaster Won
Women’s Individual- York Won
