Thailand Bouldering Competition 2013

Since the Japan trip, I took part in the local NSSCC (my first time!) for lead and speed. I must admit I thoroughly lacked practice in these areas, been training for boulder all this while. I joined the competition representing NTU this time, in the hopes to get back some psych and to keep myself going during this "boulder drought", given that the boulder comps were spaced out this year. I managed to place 2nd for Varsity Lead and 1st for Varsity Speed. I am certainly older than my peers, placing myself at a good advantage over them.. haha. But this competition marks a good turn in my life, whereby I first witnessed it in 2007 and it led me to this sport. I saw the great school spirit from C-A division and it was amazing. Congrats to the awesome VJRC kids! They clinched overall champions, defeating SRJC!

Okay, back to TBC 2013! The Singaporean team was quite a mouthful this time. Totalling to 9 of us, 7 Men, 2 Women - Uyanga and myself. Qualifiers was carnival style - they call it "buffet". 16 routes, 4 hugely vertical walls and 1.5 hours to complete them. For the women, there were about 18 of us, so the spread of climbers per route was quite decent. It is unknown how the scores are counted, but flashes and attempts mattered. I managed to finish 15 out of 16 routes, save for one last route which herald a really bad sloper on a slab that was almost impossible to hold, and we had to jump to a ledge from that. The two indons, Nadya and Syarifah who finished that said route couldnt manage a jump start which was too far (I barely caught it!). The convention hall was really cold and I had to wear my jacket through my first hour of climb. The first few climbs were shaky but it got better after our forearms started getting pumped and fingers thawed. Haha. The cold isolation room did not help as we could not get warmed up properly.

Placed myself 3rd in qualifiers to move on to the final 8 for finals the next day, along with Uyanga! The men had it tougher, with 32 men, 16 routes and 2 hours to climb. But it was a great and awesome day as all the Singaporean Men (Hazlee, Nic, Mut, Akmal, Bob, Winfred, Marcus) managed to get into the final 12 for the finals the next day (alas we question the rationale behind the number 12).

Finals day was no more warmer than the day before, in fact, colder! We were given 4 routes, rotational or "One-man-show" format, with 3 minutes to climb. Strangely we were allowed to observe the routes for about 5-3 minutes (it kept changing) before the first climber gets to climb that route. Allows us for more time to focus on the route really. But largely time consuming. It was scored based on points or more likely, percentage moves. It did not necessarily mean "points per tile", but it was ambiguous and no one knew which tile held more points than the others. This scoring would only be based on the routesetters point of view, and not taking into account how different climbers move and do routes differently to achieve the same goal. That way, we kind of miss out the importance and the real meaning behind sport climbing. What do you think?

The time limit given certainly caught me off-guard, with no plus 1 minute. I was the kind that slowly took my time to climb, moreover I was really cold and it made me super pumped. :p A couple of times I felt that the routes were so so doable, but due to time constraints, I rush myself, or simply have to be called off the wall.

Route 1 required some big swing to a dangling chain. It was further than I imagined. Getting that chain was harder as my right leg was deemed useless and unable to smear anything. tsk. Gotta really do something about my technique and learning how my body moves. Alas my fingers were too cold and when I jumped to the ending ledge, my fingers simply slipped away down the slippery wall. :p No top for me there. The other competitors resound my sentiments and no one completed this very doable first route.

Route 2 was interested. But every single one of us reached the same point, where we were stuck under a triangle volume and had no way, or hesitated too much on moving upwards to catch another triangle volume. The end would be within reach if we had gotten to that tile.

Route 3 was long, and I simply had no time to complete. the crux was rather span and thinking back, I wished I caught it on my first go so that I would have more time to complete it. At this point in time, I calculated that I had a good lead and a good chance of winning this competition. :p

Route 4 was rather straight forward, up until the point whereby I reached the yellow volume. I seriously had no idea what I was doing, and came down disappointed in myself. I tried smearing the wall to get to the slab side to catch an orange sloper, but somehow my left hand was not on a nearer hold, which would have enabled me to reach the next tile easily. I was thoroughly demoralised and thought that for sure I had lost my podium. I watched as the two indons went further on the route than I and I knew for sure they took the top 2 positions. 3rd, was uncertain.

The results came out and to my relieved I placed 3rd overall. It could be luck, or all good factors combined altogether, but it made me determined for the future. TBC 2013 is a stepping stone to the next few upcoming competitions in Singapore, namely Pumpfest and Boulderactive. I'm really hopping to do well and to see my efforts come alight. TBC 2013 showed me more of which I had to work on. I want to be at the standards of Anna Stohrs 4-in-a-row champion phase. Not in terms of winning, but in terms of knowing what you are doing on the wall, and execute the essentials. The pressure that comes with it, I want to handle it like she did. I want to do, attempt a route smiling, fist pumping in the air. That steadiness, the strength, and the mental aspect. For once, I want to tell myself that I am ready for the competition, not unsure, uncertain about my capabilities, or injuries, or the weather, etc.

This is what I'm heading to, till next time!

J

(Photo credits to Proclimber Thailand, Thcerbla Naudagap)