Thanks to the support from Sheffield uni and the climbing team’s success at the European Championships last summer in Poland, we were able to take a team to compete at the European games in Zagreb, Croatia this summer. Myself plus Sam, Connor, Joe and Luke with team manager Steve flew out very early Thursday morning to arrive in a very hot university village just outside the city of Zagreb.
We had the rest of the day to acclimatise, shop and become reacquainted with what seems to be the standard European university diet: breaded meat and potatoes, before getting an early night.
The European University Games is one of the few events that mimics the proposed Olympic format for climbing with all competitors taking part in all 3 climbing diciplines boulder, lead and speed. This meant a pretty busy weekend!
First up was bouldering with the IFSC junior format of 8 boulders for qualification. I have not had much practice at this but felt fairly confident looking at the boulders. Not getting as nervous as usual did me good and I had quickly flashed 5 of the 8 climbs. After a quick break in front of the fan I went on to try the harder 3 boulders and somehow had finished them in the next half an hour only falling off one once to finish qualifications in second place with 8 tops in 9 behind Fanny Gibert. After a very disappointing BBCs the week before I was pretty psyched to have climbed probably the best I ever have in a comp.
The boys started their qualification round as I got lunch. They all climbed well in a strong field in which Dimitri Sharafudinov didn’t win. Connor joined me in finals and Joe only narrowly missed out in 12th. After more breaded meat we were back to the venue for finals.
Luke made a nice vid with some of the problems -> https://vimeo.com/176346548
I managed to finish in 3rd place after battling my way up a tricky 4th problem, I was very lucky not to slip off the last hold.
After last years comp in Poland, where I missed out on finals by attempts at a bonus, I was delighted to have improved so much and also pretty psyched to be one of the few to still have any fingertips intact (cheers to the guys at Probalm!).
Lead qualifications started early on Saturday and I was taken by surprise how soon I was climbing after a few hiccups with the organisation. It actually helped me stay relaxed though and I managed to reach the 3rd highest point on the first route and join 3 other climbers in topping the second, despite only a 15 minute rest between routes.
After the boys had finished (Connor and Luke both joining me in finals and Sam only just missing the cut) I reluctantly registered for the speed competition. It was probably the most nervous I’d been the whole weekend but after winning the practice run 😉 I started enjoying myself. I even managed to come 9th in the end, though there weren’t that many girls competing in speed (there was more than 9 though!).
A much needed break in the programme greeted us the next morning, and we made the most of it by getting some real coffee by a nice lake (the stuff at breakfast didn’t quite pass as coffee). We were then back at the wall for the final time for lead finals. Having qualified in 3rd and therefore climbing 7th I was aware not many of the girls had climbed that far on the route. I set off quickly and reached the roof but was spat off pretty quick by a swinging move that I’d decided to try feet first. It definitely wasn’t the way for me and cost me the plus. It turned every girl except the winner got to the same move or the one below but the lack of a plus cost me a podium place and I finished 4th. Although I was disappointed with my final climb, I can’t really moan about the result as again it was an improvement on last year.
Luke also made a video of lead finals -> https://vimeo.com/176352575
The whole team did amazingly well, we’re hoping to compete in the European Uni Champs next year in Split and maybe even get on the team podium (we were 5th this year). We’ll miss Sam though!
Jennifer Wood 