David in the qualification – Pic by Felix Flick
The weather in Kempten was more or less rainy and cloudy but at the senior’s final the sun was coming through so that the audience appeared proportionally numerously.
The style of the routes was mainly powerful but on the slaps aside the athletes had to fight with fingery and technical climbing elements. It was often very dynamic so that the competitors had to jump a lot, even on dangerous sequences. That is why unfortunately it caused injuries and some climbers were close to fall down on the ground, if nothing else due to very soft belaying.
On Saturday Ruben and David made it into the finals of the best eight men. Ruben performed very well based on his two weeks training period after his wrist injury when he had to stop climbing for approximately 10 weeks. He made a phenomenal 6th place. David fell some moves higher in the final route during a jump to the side to a good hold with pretty pumped forearms. Therewith he closely missed the podium having done a spectacular fall (a somersault in the air). Luckily he didn’t hurt himself. He became a good 4th place.
In the Youth competition on Sunday Ruben qualified safely for the finals. The qualification routes were long and pumpy again. In the final he showed up again with a superior effort becoming 1st place in the Youth A category. He felt on a long move approximately five moves before top where he had to block to an undercling very far away. He was surprisingly very happy to leave Kempten witch a very good result.
All in all it was a successful competition for both of us. We have to train on our endurance now to be fit for the upcoming big Youth competitions in the end of July and mid August. David feels more and more recovered after the stressful school phase. By the way, he obtained his official school certificate having passed the A-levels. That means that he is finally free now. This extra energy has to be used for rock and competition climbing! Ruben will be on summer holidays soon and therewith he will finish his one year stay in Zurich. Next weekend David will fly to Sofia (Bulgaria) for the European Youth Boulder Cup. He currently stays in Munich after three days with his good friend Heiner Schmiedl in Kelheim near Regensburg. After Bulgaria he hopefully will stay two weeks on the road with his girlfriend Irina Kuzmenko from Russia. In mid of July Ruben and David will compete at the third German Boulder Cup in Friedrichshafen at the Bodensee and will continue having holidays with the parents together in Switzerland. Finally they will compete in Imst (Austria) at the European Youth Lead Championships in the end of July.
Best regards David and Ruben 