Dienstag, 28. Mai 2013

Rock or plastic?

The last weekend I went to Grindelwald for the first European Youth Championship in bouldering.
Since I felt quite strong in the last training sessions I went to the competition beeing confident and motivated to do a good performance. Unfortunately it turned out that I'm not that strong at all. I did an absolutely heinous performance on Saturday in the qualification and finished in 9th place.
So no final =(
On Sunday we watched our team mates, who qualified for the finals, and then we drove back home.
At about 18:30 we were in Merano and I wanted to do a quick session on my project in Algund. The conditions were actually perfect: around 15 degrees and a cold wind was blowing. Since there is no easy boulder on this bloc I had to get warm on the project. I climbed the topout once, tried the moves in the middle twice and then I did a try from the start. I didn't get the second hold well and I fell off. I gave a quick brush at the holds and then I already went for the next try.
Every move felt super easily and 15 minutes after we got to the boulder I was already on top of it. Actually it was supposed to be my project, but it felt more like a boulder on which I use to get warm. So apparently I am quite in a good shape, but just on rock. I definitely should not complain about this, but I still have to compete in some competitions and I want to climb well in them. Unfortunately the strength I have on rock doesn't help me much in those comps.
But ok. In the upcoming summer the main focus will be on rock climbing so it's ok if I am not feeling that strong on the plastic holds right now =).

Dienstag, 7. Mai 2013

Climbo 2013

Well, with the World Cup in Kitzbühel, this year's competition season has started.
This past Saturday the "Climbo", a traditional bouldering competition in South Tyrol, was held in the Salewa gym in Bolzano. The Climbo is always an amazing competition and a good opportunity to meet a lot of friends. So I was really excited to get to climb with many nice people and to give my best in the comp.
The last few years I've always been super motivated and confident to climb well, but this year it was a little different. Of course I was super motivated but actually not that confident to do a good performance. Why? Well, I'll explain you why.

About a month ago I found out that Sido, a super famous German rapper, would come to Brixen. Obviously I didn't want to miss out such an amazing event (which eventually turned out not to be that amazing at all) but as luck would have it, the date of the event was the 3rd of Mai, the day before the Climbo would take place. Consequently I thought that I would not be in a good shape the day of the competition and I had to accept that. Fortunately I was totally wrong.

I went through the qualification round feeling strong and not even a little bit tired. I made one stupid mistake which cost me the first position, but I also knew that I had the chance to make up for this little mistake in the final.
After hanging out in the sun, eating an awesome burger, drinking a beer and playing cards, my fingers started to sweat because I couldn't wait to finally climb the final.
The time in isolation was as boring as always. I did a good warm up session and felt ready to crush!

First boulder                                                                       (c) Egle Kirdulyte


















First boulder: flash. Second boulder: flash. Third boulder: third go.
I was sitting in first place after the first three problems with one more top than Steve, who was in second.
When we went out to have a look at the boulders, before the final started, the last problem was looking quite easy. So I knew that I would just have to climb this last boulder to win, what made me even more nervous.

Second boulder                                                                 (c) Egle Kirdulyte


















The time passed and finally it was my turn. I brushed the holds and went for a good flash go. All of a sudden I had to struggle with a move, which I thought would be easy, and fell off the wall. Oh no!! I absolutely had to climb this boulder problem. I thought to be sure that I would be able to climb it, but now I was struggling with a move which seemed to be an easy one. Ok, I just had to keep calm.

                                  (c) Egle Kirdulyte
The next go was as frustrating as the one before and the time was running out. I jumped onto the problem for the next try with a minute left on the clock. I fell off again on the same move but I found out a little trick to make the move easier. I had time to make one last try.

I was totally pumped and extremely tired. My fingertips were almost bleeding and my body was sore. Nevertheless I was happy. Yes, I was super happy. Sitting on top of the fourth problem in front of an amazing crowd, knowing that I had won, was one of the feelings I'll never forget. The last two years there has always been missing a little bit of luck to win the Climbo and now I had finally won this competition. What an amazing feeling!!

The winner in the girls category was Andrea Ebner and apparently it is a good idea to go out the night before a competition as she was at the Sido concert too =)



On the last boulder                                            (c) Egle Kirdulyte


















The Climbo was a cool event and the next weekend I'll already be climbing my next competition, my second World Cup in Log Dragomer. It is nice to be allowed to take part at all these comps but what I'm really looking forward to is some rock. Hopefully I will find some time in between all the days I'm spending on plastic, to get to climb outside again.