World Youth Championships 2017 Innsbruck, Austria.
Before i start speaking about the awesome 2 week experience, i would like to thank Allsports Equipment and Mr Anthony Seah for sponsoring Mark and I, our flight tickets to Innsbruck, Austria. It is a beautiful country, with a town easily accessible by bicycles and skateboards. It was chilly in the nights and mornings, it even got down to 8 degrees at some point of our stay. But i must say, i do miss the cold. (Not when it was raining though HAHAH)
Boulder
So for this time, they used four routes instead of the usual 5 for the qualifying.I felt good, psyched. And it was also my first time being in “groups” for a boulder comp, i guess regional comps have a significantly lower amount of competitors. Anyways it was still raining, by this time i’m pretty sure all of us were already used to the cold. So it was fine, but when it comes to my body, that’s another story. This same thing happened to me last year in Guangzhou, China as it was cold as well. For one thing, i can’t already stand cold showers, much less the weather. But my body decided to give in to the cold. And i may have got myself flashpumped. Flash pump is when you don’t warm up properly or when you give your muscles a shock. First route, seemed pretty okay, but took 5 attempts and finished it with seconds to spare. The 2nd problem was tough to start and i took almost a whole minute just figuring out the start, but when i got to the bonus in my final attempt i saw a hidden black crimp on the black volume fell on the last move. 3rd route was ALL ABOUT THE FLOWZ. It wasn’t super tough, you just need to commit and do it, so i got the big jump, did well on the whole route but came short again at the last tile #lasttilesyndrome. And for the final route, i struggled to even get to the bonus as i was still very pumped. and couldn’t recover for the last route. I knew all these routes were definitely within my climbing abilities, the tough part is not being able to climb it but to also do it within a limited time frame, and then you go in get some rest and you’re out again. When i came out after my qualis, i looked at the results board and those climbers who ranked high HAD 4 TOPS, I DONT EVEN UNDERSTAND HOW STRONG THEY ARE AHAH.
Speed
But well, i know one day the cold and the conditions didn’t affect me as much as it did on that day. And that was on the day of the speed event. During warm ups, i felt good, the gradual confidence from warm up is always critical. So in the transit zone, i felt nothing but composure, felt ready, FELT PSYCHED. And it was soon to be my turn on the wall. When i walked over to adjust the footpad(it’s to test for false starts if some of you don’t know) legs weren’t wobbly and i was breathing normally. Clipped on, ready to go. “At your mark, beep, beep,BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP” and when i looked up at the timer, my biggest fear came true, i had false started on my first qualifying run, i was breaking down on the inside, but on the outside i had to keep my cool as all these, is just part of competition. I walked away with my equipment in my hands looking at how wrecked my speed shoes were, all of that was the hard training that was put in weeks ago. G O N E. But this is sure to be a good learning experience as it is also a mistake that i would never want to repeat,ever again. So the for the rest of the comp i supported Mark as i didn’t compete in lead, i’m super happy for him as he has done extremely well! Especially the bouldering!! GOOD JOB OPPA!♥️♥️
But the one who was there for us most was Hazlee, he helped us so much and personally he helped me a lot as well. He looks like he is having the time of his life, looks like he is on some sort of holiday but nope, he had to plan what we do and when we do it and where we go and what time we head out and whether we’re gonna cook or eat in a restaurant. Write reports based on our climbs etc .Every single thing was planned by him. He made sure that we were his priority and i am forever grateful for that. He made sure we were safe even if it meant that he had to make some sacrifices as well, he made sure we were healthy and ready both physically and mentally for our respective competitions.
One more person i would like to thank everything for is Charmaine from NYSI (National Youth Sports Institute) , she was there to help us recover in time when our body ached or hurt, like a physio, she immediately knows where to massage when we explain the pain. I didn’t get to know her much before the trip eg. during the pt sessions at NYSI as i had internship and couldn’t make it but i’m glad i was able to make this trip and actually get to know her better.
In a nutshell, the whole trip was filled with ups & downs and i already can’t wait for the next trip to Iran for the Asian Continental Championships 2017! I will be writing about that experience too so stay tuned!!
