On June 9th City Bloc hosted its 4th
Bloc party competition.
The competition has been growing over the last few years,
not only in reputation but also in the number of strong competitors and this
year was no exception.
With 40 qualifying problems of all different levels the competitors
had plenty of fun challenging climbs to play on. The problems set by Ben Meeks
and Martin Smith were catching people out left, right and centre with a good
mix of styles making it tricky enough to keep some of the strong guys and girls
from succeeding. With that being said
many good results came out of the qualification round with a very impressive
387 out of a maximum of 400 from Dave Barrans which took him into the finals in
first place in the adult male category. Qualifying in first place in the adult
female category was a very strong looking Leah Crane with a great score of 328.
For the Junior Male and Female title this year we had Tim Wrigglesworth and
Natasha Smile who had very respectable scores and both showed they wouldn’t
have been out of place mixed in with the adults.
Dianne Merrick concentrating hard in the final.
Once qualifying was complete the top 5 male and female
scores went through to a final to really test the climber’s skills. Both sexes
had 3 problems to try with each one having a different style to the last. The
first problems style was thuggish and powerful or American as we like to call
it. The second style was technical including lots of volumes and trickery and the
third style was dynamic involving lots of leaping around. This mix of styles
showed that female winner Leah Crane has a great set of skills as she only fell
off once in the finals and took victory over British Team Member Dianne Merrick
who was narrowly behind, with up and coming youngster Hannah Wilson taking
third place. In the male competition it was quite a close call with all of the
competitors having a moment of brilliance making it look like they could win, but
in the end Dave Barrans took the title again for 3 out of the 4 years Bloc
Party has been running. Tom Newman wasn’t far behind for 2nd place and our very
own Louis Parkinson was an excellent 3rd place.
Thanks and congratulations must be given to all the competitors
who made it a great atmosphere and a great event. Thanks also go to Metolius ,
Rock Technologies, Scarpa and Core for sponsoring the event and giving us some
great prizes.
Full results can be found in the news section on our web
page.
