Hamilton Finals

Qualification and Semi final recap can be found HERE.

As I stepped into finals isolation, I felt strong. I was still warm from the semi-final round. In between the two rounds, I had gotten something to eat, relaxed and played an online game with my cousin back in Vancouver. It was nice to just relax and get away from the competition for a bit. Now it was time to get back into the competition, I still had 4 boulder problems to do.

Soon enough, we were all warmed up heading out for presentation and observation. Being the lone Canadian in finals, I have to admit the cheers for me were maybe the biggest, at least among the men. We previewed the 4 boulders and they looked interesting. The first one was a slab corner with a dyno. The second one looked like a normal boulder. The third one was the strangest. It was a roof problem into a mantle. The roof was mainly just pressing out with your hands and looked a bit uncomfortable. The 4th and last boulder looked the best. Some crimps at the beginning, then some campusing and an easy top.

After digesting the 4 boulders, we started on boulder one. I was 5th out and got to climb the round with Shauna Coxsey from Great Britain. We had also climbed together in semi-finals and I had done pretty well. Among the girls, she gets a lot of love from the crowd, so I imagined that us climbing together could really generate some noise.

Of the first four men, no one had done the boulder. I came out and was pretty eager. I started reverse and had some trouble standing up. Once I was there, I flashed bonus but fell on the dyno. The second time I started the boulder the stand-up was painfully easy. The dyno was still the crux move for me. I got there another handful of times and was so so close. My last two tries were the best and I was mere millimetres away from sticking the jump. Jan Hojer who climbed just after me was the only male to complete boulder one.

On boulder two, I could tell that most of them had done the boulder with the exception of Rustam Gelmanov; I went out knowing it was possible. I spent most of time figuring out how to do the first move. What bugged me the most about the problem was that it seemed so much easier if you were tall. I try to forget about it and just focus on the boulder. Eventually I stuck the first move and fell on the next. From there I knew how to do the first move, it was a sort of double dyno. I waited for my last attempt and went. I stuck the first move and knew it would be my last try. I stuck the weird foot movement and moved into the big feature that was bonus. From there, there wasn’t a lot keeping me on the wall. You couldn’t really grab the holds, and the next one was a feature pinch. I moved my heel to a toe and the next one looked far. I had to jump for it but when I jumped I knew I wasn’t going to stick it. I tried my best but slowly slipped off. I was devastated; I knew no one else who got there had fallen. I could feel the anger setting in as I ran the numbers through my head. I grabbed my chalk bag, did my best to smile, gave a little wave to the crowd and went back to the isolation.

Boulder 2 (all queued up)

The next 20 minutes were hard for me. I was the maddest I’ve been in my whole competition career and I’ve done over 100 competitions. I knew Jan had two tops, and another 3 competitors had 1. It was going to take a huge comeback for me to be in the top-3. The part that made me so angry was that I couldn’t shake the concept of being screwed over by my height. I took the 4 climbers that had done the boulder (James Kassay 6”0, Jan Hojer 6”0, Jongwon Chon Fellow 5”11, Guillaume Glairon-Mondet 5”10) and compared it to the climbers who hadn’t done it (Rustam Gelmanov 5”6, myself 5”6 ½). I imagined that the tall climbers could keep their foot on for the move that I fell and it was the jump that hosed me. I sat there in my self-pity for what seemed to be a long time. No one talked to me, which was probably a good thing. After a while, I tried to re-focus. I was in Canada competing in a world cup and I was already in finals. I kept telling myself that the crowd didn’t care where I finished, just that they got a good show, or something like that. It made me feel better. I’d be a huge hypocrite if I just gave up; I’m always telling people to enjoy the process, enjoy being in finals and smile and wave. I promised myself I would enjoy the last two boulders no matter what happened. I could tell the 3rd problem was hard, but still getting done. Because I had no tops, I wasn’t really looking at how fast anyone did it, mostly just if they were doing it or not. I knew the boulder was possible so I tried to think of that.

I went out and running on the mats, taking in the crowd and waving made me feel better. I took a few deep breaths and tried to focus on the boulder at hand. It was a reverse start and something I haven’t really done in competition. It was basically traversing facing the crowd into a mantle. I did the first few moves much easier than I had thought and was close to the lip. I found some cool positions and went toe hook feet first into the bonus. I felt like I was climbing smart and efficient. Now came time for the mantle. I threw my right foot over the volume because that’s my strong side. I went from feeling good, to feeling awkward to a struggling feeling. It wasn’t working, I wasn’t getting high enough. I grabbed the intermediate but it didn’t do anything. I made the decision, it was time to reverse. Reversing the movement was just as hard as going up in the first place; I had now been climbing for roughly a minute. I wrapped my legs around the massive hold and steadied my breathing. It was time for the other leg, my “weaker” side. I did similar movements and it didn’t seem to be working any better. I finally got so tired, I couldn’t really move anymore. I looked up and the final hold was in reach. I knew the whole time I was mantling that the hard part would be matching the final hold, not just 1-handing it. I reached up and the last hold was bad as expected. I was pleasantly surprised that the bolt hole felt sharp. I clenched my whole body on the volume and released my right hand. I knew I was going to do it, unless something crazy slipped. I matched the final hold and let out a big roar. I had topped a problem and was thrilled. After the match I just leaned backwards and fell on my back. The crowd was going crazy and I was exhausted. I got up and could feel the energy from the crowd; they were feeding off my struggle and rewarding me with cheers.

Problem 3 (all queued up)

With the one flash, a lot came back into play. On top of it, Jan couldn’t do the mantle which brought the Gold medal position back into play. From what I had gathered, Gui-Gui Jan and Jongwon had 2 tops in whatever. I was in 4th with a flash, but James also had a top. Rustam hadn’t had a great finals yet with 0 tops. As the competitors started the last boulder, the math became easier and easier. Gui-Gui was first and sent the boulder. He had 3 tops and would beat me for sure. Rustam flashed it as well, but I was still ahead of him. I thought James had 2 tops, but in reality he had one. Jongwon also couldn’t do the last problem which opened up the podium for me. I just had to do the boulder and I’d be on the podium. In my mind I was shooting for 3rd, because I knew Jan would also do the boulder.

Problem 4 (all queued up)

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