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It was a cold July morning in Brisvegas, and the coffee van was a welcome sight, warming everyone up for the K2 Queensland Climbing Championships at Urban Climb.
Over 80 climbers took part, vying for more than $5000 in prizes from K2, Pinnacle Sports, Urban climb and Hand Jam. This was the first time the QLD championships had been held on a single day, and combining all categories certainly lent a busy feel to proceedings.
Thanks to all the volunteers, competitors and spectators for bearing with us through the odd teething problem. We ended up running about 30 minutes late, which is not bad for the first championships in this format. Climbing kicked off bright and early, with Youth C and D starting their heats at 9am.
At about 1pm, we had a visit from the Red Bull team, who handed out free cans of liquid energy to competitors just as the post-lunch lull threatened their energy levels.
"But I've never led before!" an anonymous Open B finalist was heard to cry.
Finals for most categories were on lead, which made some finalists a bit nervous, but it was great to see the competitors stepping up and taking on the challenge of leading. It lends a completely new aspect to climbing, and allows much more freedom in route-setting than top-rope competition.
The finals routes certainly tested the climbers, with Christian Lopez thrilling the crowd by completing the Open B final with a smooth heel/toe hook combination to clip the final draw.
Al Earley, Axel Tritton and Emma Chipperfield topped out on their final climbs as well.
By contrast, the Youth A Male category was decided on a countback when four climbers tied on the final climb, with Elliott Leach emerging victorious.
Tom O'Halloran recovered from his close second in Youth B to be the clear winner in the Open A category.
There was a strong interstate contingent, with Axel Tritton, Nicole Farrell and Sophie King all taking out their age-group categories. Nicole backed up to win the Open A Female category as well, which is a pretty awesome effort for the day.
Thanks and kudos to K2, our major sponsor, for really stepping up and supporting the competition. The guys came through with Open category prizes, competition T-shirts and the raffle prizes, which was a huge effort.
Axel Tritton and Tom O'Halloran blitzed the field, both of them winning prizes in the raffle to add to their haul from the Youth B and Open A categories. Pinnacle Sports also made a major contribution, sponsoring the ropes for the lead climbing, the age-group prizes and giveaways on the day. Urban Climb, Red Bull and Hand Jam completed the sponsor list, making for a fantastic event.
Thanks must also go to the Lychee Lounge, Chermside Girl Guides, Moo's Massage and QUT for their support in providing equipment and services for the event.
Thanks to all the volunteers on the day: the judges, belayers, admin staff, scorers, forerunners, isolation marshalls, catering staff, etc, etc, etc.
And a special thank-you to those who also competed; it's a huge effort to work the event for a few hours, then prepare for your own climbs. Special mention goes to Ben Meany, who was a forerunner for the age-group categories, then backed up to win the Open C Male. It was worth it to see him trying to climb like a youth D competitor when forerunning - he's a pretty tall bloke.
Special thanks go to the core group of organisers who worked in the leadup to the event: Adrian Amies, who set most of the routes, ran the climbers' route plan and negotiated for the event to be held at Urban in the first place; Emily Amies, who organised the volunteers, did heaps of admin work and still found time to come second in the Open A Female category; Mindy Coles, who was head judge, sorted out rules & regulations, helped out with admin, and did all of it while suffering from the flu; and Pete O'Halloran, who produced all the posters and marketing material, and worked with K2 on sponsorship details.
Without these guys, the event never would have seen the light of day. Full results are listed below. All placings are in order; but it should be noted that, while interstate competitors can win prizes in state championships, they are not eligible to win a trophy. In the event that an interstate competitor placed in their category, the trophy went to the next-placed Queensland competitor. This made handing out prizes and trophies on the day a bit of fun; we had five people on the podium a couple of times!