Recently Jurassic Team and GB Team member, Tommy Matthews entered ‘The Big Flash’ competition at Highball Climbing Centre, Norwich. Tommy is naturally a boulderer and has recently stepped up from youth to senior competition. Here in his own words is what happened!
The Big Flash – Highball Climbing Centre, Norwich
The Big Flash is one of my favorite competitions. This is the third time I have competed in this competition. The men’s category is always very competitive with attendance from strong climbers and GB team members. This is probably because of the great route setting, the atmosphere, and the prize money.
After a 5-and-a-half-hour drive and a good night’s sleep, I was ready to perform. Having discussed the climbs with members of the senior bouldering team, and some of my friends, I warmed up. Being the first person on the wall I started off on the easy climbs and progressed up through the grades. I managed to flash 24/30 of the problems and finished with a score of 261. There was a total of 110 climbers over the two categories (male/female). Only the top 20 in each category would progress to the semi-finals. Thankfully with my score, I qualified in 9th position.
The Semi-Finals
The Big Flash semi-finals were similar to IFSC standards, with the climbers being in isolation and coming out in reverse order. With four blocks to climb and with 5 minutes on 5 minutes off rotation, the pressure was on to perform. I came out and flashed the first problem, which was a volume slab, this put me in the lead from the start. I had a good fight on the other blocs although no other tops, but I managed to achieve all of the bonuses. This performance by the end of the semi-finals placed me in 6th position. Fortunately for me, this was enough to qualify! This is the second time I have made finals in this competition and I was very happy to have achieved that.
The ITV Interview
Between the start of the finals and the end of the semi-finals, I was interviewed by ITV Anglia. This was alongside Alexia Basch to discuss climbing’s participation in the 2020 Olympics, and a little about the competition. I discussed how excited I was about climbing in the 2020 Olympic games in Tokyo and how I was training hard to compete. As well as being interviewed by ITV I was also interviewed by the highball staff which is to be included in the video of the competition. I just had to discuss how I felt about the qualifiers and semi-finals.
The Finals
The Big Flash finals started at 6.30, with live streaming on YouTube which quite a lot of friends from around the UK and Europe watched. The format was 4 climbs with a 4+ minute time limit. As I qualified in 6th, I was first out onto the blocs. Although I felt that I climbed well in the finals, I made too many mistakes with route reading, body positioning and just generally being tired. However, it was a great competition with a great setting and a great spectacle for the audience. I finished the final with 2 bonuses, having slipped going for the final hold on the fourth bloc. I finished where I started in 6th position, however, I was still very happy with this result and am looking forward to competing next year.
What’s Next
My next competitions are the welsh lead climbing championships on the 5th November and the Irish lead climbing championships on the 26th November. Wish me luck.
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