BB Team at the British Lead Climbing Champs

Last weekend, while we were hosting Slabfest back in Brighton, Tai Tewkesbury and Felix Warren from the BB Youth Team went up to the British Lead Climbing Champs at Awesome Walls in Sheffield, where they had some pretty awesome results! As well as being incredibly strong boulderers they've been training their lead climbing hard at High Sports Brighton, and are now reaping the rewards.

Huge congrats to Tai who placed 5th in Male B, and Felix who placed 9th in Male C, making them some of the best lead climbers in the country right now!

Tai's dad James gave us the following report:

This was the big lead comp of the year attracting all the best climbers, 26 in Tai's category.

Tai only started top roping in April 2016 and lead climbing in June 2016 so we had managed expectation for the weekend as many of the competitors in his category have been leading for years. We were hoping for a top 10 placement.

The event ran over two days, Saturday for the two qualifying rounds with the final on Sunday. This was mixed in with lots of other event, para and of course speed climbing..

The order of climbers was random and Tai was the 20th to climb, so a lot of waiting round watching the other climbers trying the route. When he started the first route (in Tai's words, a vertical balance techie 17m route) only one other climber had successfully flashed it (the 2016 champ). Tai climbed with confidence topping the route making us all very proud! Two further climbers also managed the top. This put Tai in joint 1st place, a strong position to enter the second qualification climb. The second climb was on the main overhang wall where Tai sailed through the first crux coming off a few holds short of the roof section which was enough. This placed him in a solid 5th position going into the finals. This climb was not topped by any climber, youth A or B.

The final route another mostly vertical route, Tai scored the same as most the climber, at the high crux of the route. Only one climber managed to get through this and topped the climb.

Tai came away placed 5th which he was really pleased with, giving him the confidence and drive to take this further.

Full results for the 2017 BLCCs can be found on the BMC website here: Full Results