First European Youth Boulder competition Merano Italy 10-11 September 2011

A small delegation of Young Belgian climbers: Manolo and Ignace Debreyne, Cedric Binst and Chloé Caulier decided to go to the first European Boulder competition in Merano Italy. There was no support except inscription from the Belgian Federations KBF and CAB so their parents supported these motivated climbers.

 All had to travel 11-13 hours by car to go to this event. Manolo and Ignace camped on the camping site Merano in the middle of the town. This camping has a small campground for tents and excellent sanitary. From this campground it was only 10 minutes walking to the Outdoor Competition Climbing wall. This Wall was mounted at the entrance of the Thermae of Merano with a beautiful view on the surroundings mountains The Thermae of Merano is a health resort with indoor and outdoor baths ,sauna, .. Very impressive, large, modern architecture really worth a visit.

Saturday 10 September 2011 was the qualification for the finals on Sunday. 12 boulder routes to climb flash in 1 ½ hours with maximum 5 attempts. Every category climbed separately and if there were more than 30 climbers in one category then the climbing time was extended. The 6 best climbers could climb on Sunday in the finals where you had 4 on sight boulders to climb in 4+ minutes per boulder . Chloé (Female Youth B) climbed first and was able to top 8 boulders and ended on an 11 place. It was Manolo’s (Youth Male B) first International competition and he was able to top 4 boulders. Cedric and Ignace (Youth A Male ) climbed in the afternoon when temperatures climbed up to more than 30°C. Most of the boulders were too hard for them in these temperatures. Cedric topped 2 and Ignace 1 boulder route. All Belgian climbers had problems doing Dyno’s .Only Cedric managed to climb one dyno .

 Our Dutch climbing friends Daan Groskamp, Teun Ceusters, Tim Reuser and Tom Hendriks climbed also hard but also for them there was no place in the finals. Afterwards Ignace, Manolo and Carl enjoyed going to the baths of the Thermae of Merano. There was no Belgian climber in the finals so we decided to drive home on Sunday so all could go to work or school on Monday.
The Dutch team went bouldering in the Zillertal in Austria to prepare themselves for the next European Boulder contest on 17-18 September in Münich Germany. It was a very good organized competition in a lovely scenery .The boulders were very nice moves with challenges like dyno ’s , small holds ,balancing moves, power throws,…

 Complete results on :
http://www.ifsc-climbing.org/index.php?page_name=resultservice&comp=1356&cat=ICC_MBB