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Lactic Factory Bouldering Series 06 -Round 2 15-May-2006 At 6:03:14 PM Rat Man

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Lactic Factory Bouldering Series 06 – Round 2 – Sat 6th May.

The doors opened at 11.00 to the beginnings of a perfect day for bouldering. Conditions were clear, still and cool – shame the problems are indoors. As the Junior competitors arrived for registration it became apparent that this round was going to be a lot more competitive than the last with almost 3 times as many competitors registering.
The progress was predictable, the initial rush to warm up and get on cool/fun-looking problems, regardless of their grade, the dyno featured heavily and so did the funky mantle through an overhanging corner. Pretty soon it got down to business with some impressive ticks. In particular the flashes of a tricky slopey traverse on the 15° wall by Josh Fawssett and Douglas Stewart the first and second place getters, third was taken out by Jayden Irving. Madeline Melder was the only female junior competitor but it was great to see her hold her own with a very respectable score when compared against the boys.

Interest in the afternoon Intermediate and Open session proved to be a bit overwhelming for the event organizers with the gym filled to capacity well before the end of the registration period, resulting in many climbers being turned away.
Once again, the route-setters (Simon Weill, Richard ‘Sticky’ Dale, Andrew Connolly and Martin Lama) provided the competitors with a gym full of excellent new problems. Gym regulars commented on the quality of the problems and the overall end results left the entire field split with definite winners and no ties.
In the spirit of bouldering, despite the crowded conditions, competitors were cooperative, polite and encouraging towards one another. The atmosphere of the pump fest, although charged, seemed to promote this spirit of cooperation and thereby help people to climb at their best, without the usual performance anxiety of a more formal competition.
With good style, James Kassay flashed every problem he attempted, finishing with the highest possible score. The only time he even looked like coming off was a slight pause matching on a tricky sloper on the 45° wall. His training partner Bryn Hoskins followed closely up the same problems succeeding on all except for the two hardest for second place. Anthony Prieto took third and then continued to boulder after the comp and ticked most of the hard problems that eluded him in the allotted 2 hours.
The other categories were very closely competed with not a single winner from round one making a second win this round.
The open women category in particular came down to the wire with Thomasina Pidgeon and Bec Foxen both half-way up problems when the finish bell rang that would have put them in first position over the eventual winner Alison Wong.