Irish Leading Competiton Report

National Lead Climbing Competition, Point Theatre, Dublin

7-10-2000

Paul McArthur

photos: Chris Rooney/Paul McArthur

Over the weekend of the 7^th October, the Mars Sports Show, Dublin, was venue to the 2000 National Leading Competition. This was the first leading competition for over 5 years and, at first, few climbers believed it could be pulled off without turning into a complete farce. However, the organisers, Vera Quinlan and Peter Owens, did an amazing job sorting out every aspect required to run the two day event, from arranging sponsors to insurance, prizes to life size cardboard cut-outs of Lara Croft …where did they all go?

Steeeeeep!

Olivier Rovelotti on the Mens qualifying route

The walls was designed by DR International and at 13 meters high it could only be described as steep, wonderfully steep. Forty-six climbers took part in the qualifying round on the Saturday in three categories, Male, Female and Junior, with the bulk of the climbers in the male category. The top 10 males qualified for the final on the Sunday with only 7 climbers toping out on the 7a route. It was a joy to see all the girls top out on their respective route and clearly showed the improvement in the standard of woman’s leading here in Ireland. Only two juniors had entered and they had little problems on their qualifying route, which was the same climb as the females.

On the Sunday the male final was a close fought affair with Duffy, Cooper and Wilson getting very high up the route. However, it wasn’t until the last climber, Daniel Scortea, to pull through the previous high points and reach the final holds and chain. Easy when you can climb 8b! Joan Flanagan climbed extremely well to win the female category with Trish Murphy taking a well-deserved 2^nd place. In the junior event Nigel Callender easily won by being the only competitor to top out on the route.

Grainne O'Brien begins the headwall

of the Women's final route

And the Irish Leading Champion is...

Romanian!

Daniel Scortea seconds after cruising to the belay of the Mens final route

After the competition everybody came away positive about the future of leading competitions in Ireland and, of coarse, enjoying a weekend of great climbing, great routes and great craic. Finally big thanks to Vera and Peter for their vision and hard work and hopefully this may become a yearly event to be put in every Irish climber’s diary. Well done!

Click Here to download an mpeg of Peter Keane going for it on the Mens qualifying route

Click Here to download an mpeg of Michael Duffy on the Mens final route

Andrew Kelly on the Mens qualifying route

Andrew finished 9th, putting in an excellent performance and upsetting the status quo a little

Joan Flanagan a few moves from her high point in the Womens final, giving her first place

Tense scenes in the isolation room!

Nigel Callender on his way to winning the Juniors final

Clare Sheridan on her way to fourth place on the Womens final route

Paul McArthur too busy looking cool to qualify

Willie Rock getting stuck into the Mens final route

Jennie Coughlan on the Womens final route

Ronan Browner cranking on the Mens final route

Whats celebrity belayer Howard Hebblethwaite saying to Eddie Cooper just before he starts the Mens final route??

Enter our caption competition and win a ... mystery prize!*

For a more detailed account of the comp. Check out the report on Dave Hunt’s page at www.climbing.ie

*Warning could be anything/nothing

Results

Male:

1.   Daniel Scortea
2.   Michael Duffy
3.   Eddie Cooper
4.   Alistair Wilson
5.   Ricky Young
6.   Willie Rock
7.   Ronan Browner
8.   Peter O'Farrell
9.   Andrew Kelly
10. Alan Sarhan

Female:

1. Joan Flanagan
2. Trish Murphy
3. Jenny Coughlan
4. Claire Sheridan
5. Grainne O'Brien
6. Roisin Mallon

Junior

1. Nigel Callender
2. James Wilson