Tommy Matthews – At The Welsh Championships

Third Place for Tommy at The Welsh Championships

Recently Jurassic Team member and GB Team member, Tommy Matthews entered The Welsh Championships in Cardiff. Now that lead climbing is one part of the 2020 Olympics he has started training and competing in lead climbing. Tommy is naturally a boulderer and has not majored on lead climbing. Since he started training he has seen success. Here in his own words is what happened!

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Following on from my positive result at ‘The British Lead Climbing Competition’, I decided to enter the Welsh Climbing Champions held in Cardiff.

The Qualifiers

Although I am currently competing in the youth ‘A’ category, I entered into the adult category for this competition to push my performance level. The format for this competition was 3 routes in the qualifiers, followed by a single route in the final. Everyone climbed in the qualifiers, then depending on the size of category up to 8 people progressed to the final.

I managed to top the first climb, and fight my way to the top of the third climb. On the third climb, I nearly fell as my hand got caught on the rope and quick draw, causing me to nearly miss the hold. Unfortunately, on the second climb, I dropped the last hold, as it was an uncomfortable big move for me! This placed me in joint fourth and I was really happy to make the finals as this was the first time I had made a lead competition final.

The Finals

The organisers decided that the youth ‘A’ categories and adults would climb the same route for their respected genders. We had five minutes to view the climb before heading into isolation. The running order was a little confusing as they switched between the adults and youth ‘A’, but it just meant we had to try and be ready. I wasn’t ready and I was having to put my harness on as I approached the climb. Unfortunately, due to a slight error in competition organisation, my route got covered by another climber so that I was stopped from continuing. I made an appeal which was accepted and then waited until the end of the competition to make my second attempt.

Now that I was the last climber on the route, there was a bit of pressure on me to not make a mistake. I quickly managed to pass where I had been blocked and got to the dyno move. I miscalculated this and fell off, meaning that there was a three-way draw for first. Due to countback, I finished in 3rd position, making my first lead competition podium.

I have recently competed in the Irish Lead Climbing Championships again in the senior category. This was my last major competition of the year and the event article will come soon.