After an intense qualifier in the morning, we were left with some very strong finalists who put up incredible performances, and the very small space of the climbing wall had an electric atmosphere from both climbers and spectators. With the help of women’s finalist Olivia Mullan who provided me with a technical perspective, here’s a rundown of the final four climbers and their performances.
First on the wall was LUMC’s Tom Waddy, described as a “classic lead climber if there ever was one”, and his technique was clear throughout. Tom kicked off the finals with a very strong start for Lancaster and his second climb was just as smooth, overall an impressive lead performance from a fairly new climber to the university competition scene.
Next up, climbing for York, was Theo Hill , another extremely talented climber and very possibly the crowd favourite, especially when his Rose’s shirt came flying at the crowd before his second climb. Just missing out on topping either of his climbs (slipping on the final hold of his first climb, much to the vocal disappointment of the York crowd) this didn’t take away from the skill of Theo’s performance, as demonstrated in his amazing qualifier climbs. All in all, the fact that Theo didn’t top the climbs doesn’t mean an awful lot, and he’s certainly one to watch at next year’s Roses on home turf.
Next up was another YUMC climber, Matty Grier. It’s important to note here that I am a public member of YUMC. However, I do believe, regardless of his university allegiance, that Matty is one of the most spectacular climbers I have ever witnessed scale a wall. His confident flash of both his final routes as well as his clean sweep in qualifiers proves this point nicely. Matty has a great consistency to his climbing, putting up as impressive a performance in Lancaster as he did at York last year, which really makes him stand out at every lead event.
And last to hit the wall was Lancaster’s Sam Lavender, a name that consistently comes up when discussing Roses climbing performances, and he reminded us today why. Sam commands the entire room while he climbs, his confidence is clear and has the whole room cheering for him, creating quite the show while he is belayed down. He put up an astonishing performance in both his climbs, flashing both with precision and strength. A worthy winner of today’s lead competition, keeping his title from last year, Sam certainly remains a force for Lancaster.
Lancaster ended up taking the win of Lead Open Individual, and the final rankings came out at Theo in 4th, Tom in 3rd, Matty in 2nd and Sam taking 1st. This tough competition in lead certainly had everyone waiting in anticipation for the rest of the weekend’s bouldering fixtures!