This was by far the best Nationals!! It was held at the newly built Stone Summit Gym in Atlanta. You could tell that this gym was built for competitions. There was more than enough room for all the climbers and the spectators.
Qualifier 2
"Photo by - Jason Barnes"
This is by far the best rope gym I have ever been in. The first and second days were redpoint qualifiers. No matter how you did the first day, you got to climb the second day; then they calculated your points to see if you qualified for semi-finals. The first route wasn't too bad; easily made it to the top. The next day, however, I did not feel that I was climbing very smart and got pumped out earlier than I would have liked. I made it to next round, semi-finals, in around 8th place. I learned from my mistakes from the previous day and was able to climb a lot better, resting where I was supposed to and climbing smarter.
TEAM SPONGEBOB
"Photo By - Jason Barnes"
This route was definitely the best of the comp, I feel, for it had a really sick sideways dyno to a huge jug.
"Photo by - Jason Barnes"
I was very happy with my performance on the route; I ended up tying for 4th at the end of semi-finals. I felt really calm going into finals; I cruised the first half of the route, earning me a big rest right before the crux at the top. I milked the rest for as long as I could without being pushed for time. A few moves after the crux I realized that I had done the wrong beta, I tried for 30 seconds to somehow get out of it and recover to finish the route but alas, I could not. I ended up falling lower than I would have liked putting me in 9th overall. Obviously I was not very happy with my performance, but what can you do. From this though, I learned many things that I can again improve on for future competitions. Thankfully, my performance in speed climbing was better than my performance in sport this year. I took 3rd place!! earning me a spot on the U.S. team and a ticket to compete in Scotland for the Youth World Competitons this September.
I now am going home to train for the summer OR competition held in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Nephew, you keep doing what you do! You learn from your mistake and make sure you do not repeat them, When I competed in police competitions while in the Air Force, I made sure I took something away from each competition. I earned 3 gold medals in future competitions in Team Tactics, but what I was most proud of was the fact that we completed the mission that each team had to prepare for. One year, out of the 30 teams, my time was the ONLY team that completed their mission and we also did not have anyone killed. So, hit your training hard and get ready for Scotland and any other competitions you enter. I know climbing is a tactician sport and coming up with a strategy. Thats all you can do...after that, leave everything up to God!!! I'M PROUD OF YA!!!
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