Ruben became 1st in the Youth lead event – Pic by http://www.bergleben.de/klettern

Last weekend the Sparkassen Dome in Neu-Ulm (Bavaria) was host of the penultimate stage of the German Lead Cup and German Youth Lead Cup 2013. A wide lead competition wall and a seperated speed wall aside offered enough space for aprox. 170 athletes overall at the juniors and seniors cup. The work of the very well organised team with plenty of volunteers and backers lead to a smooth event which made it even more enjoyable for climbers to compete and for spectators to watch. A lot of parents, coaches and laymen were coming to support the climbers and to cheer them up the wall. So to speak, full house and good athmosphere.

On Friday after training early in the morning in Hannover David was driving to Elze (30 km to the south of Hannover) to pick up Ruben after his last lesson at his new sports and boarding school. Afterwards we were driving 6 hours on the highway until we were arriving in Neu-Ulm at 11 p.m. Finally, after a fast dinner we went to bed.

This weekend there was a huge pensum for Ruben because on Saturday he had to complete two Youth qualification routes and the whole Youth speed contest. Furthermore, on Sunday the Youth final and the Seniors cup with two qualification routes and one final route was waiting for him. We don’t know who had the idea of this competition time table but we have to criticize that such a format of competition made it more complicated for Ruben to compete successfully on the seniors cup. The vision to let the Youth compete at speed, bouldering and lead as the requirement to win the German Youth Championship is senseless. We wish that this will change next season again! Otherwise efficient training isn’t possible or you should better call the German Youth Championship an overall result.

During the qualification round on Saturday it became obvious that the routesetting was too easy because there were several double tops of the qualification routes which lead for example to multiple first places and moreover to faster climbings in the finals because with same qualification rankings the time counts if the climbers were achieving the same jugdment. That’s when lead turns into speed and in our eyes that was a pity. Nevertheless, Ruben was topping out both qualifications easily starting as one of the last competitors in the Youth final on Sunday. After a short break the speed contest started.  Without any training before Ruben was running up the wall accomplishing a great time of around 13 seconds on the classic speed route. The contrary happended during his second run. Ruben made a bad mistake missing a hole in the middle of the speed route falling into the rope which meant that he was out of game. A little bit dissapointing because with another fast run he could have been easily in the quarter final. Thus he finished 20th.

Ruben in the male Youth A final – Pic by Marco Kost

That didn’t matter so much because there was still the possibilty to crush at the seniors competition on Sunday. New contest, new routes and a new chance for Ruben. That’s why he took it easy. Maybe a bit too easy: Due to a wrong foot position and a mistake while observing Ruben was falling in the beginning of the first slaby qualification route. What a bummer because that wasn’t enough to qualify for the men’s final although he was topping out the second qualification route. But there was still the Youth final left for him.

During the last weeks of hard lead training in Hamburg and Kassel David could stabilize himself mentally and could regain climbing flow and motivation. The qualification round was no big deal for him. He managed to finish both qualification routes, the slap and the overhang, qualifing savely for the seniors final. That was necessary because there were seven double tops refering to the quote of only eight athletes which qualify for the final.

Before the seniors finals started there were the Youth finals. From the Northern Competition Climbing Squad not only Ruben could reach the next round. It was very pleasant to see that Lars Hoffmann, Max Prinz, Felix Flick and Helene Wolf could qualify for the final as well. The day before Helene won the speed competition and Max got 3rd place. With decidedness and motivation they gave all the energy they still had. We are sure that in the following seasons our team will have more and more athletes to score top 10 rankings. There is a positive trend in our regional squad we are proud to be part of!

The male Youth A final route was looking great with various challenging sequences like a corner in the beginning, a jump to left in the middle and a demanding powerful volume sequence followed by a pumpy run-out in the end of the route. In the ranking Ruben could distance the other climbers having reached three moves more than Luis Gerhardt from Stuttgart who became second so that Ruben won savely.

After the award ceremony of the Youth cup the seniors final could start. The mens final consisted of a run-and-jump start, edge climbing, a tricky sequence on volumes as underclings and a pumpy ending with a long move to a mini jug. Black holds on black volumes with a bad lightening during the observation made it impossible to spot which kind of holds you had to take on the volumes. Not until you were arriving at those sequences it became clear how the holds were like. David easily managed to do the run-and-jump and the edge climbing but decided in favor of a wrong method to hold an undercling at the volumes in the middle of the wall. Not pumped but in a body position where you can’t climb back he had to give up. Not happy with a 5th place finally. Next time he has to climb more decidedly. More to work on!

David in the first seniors qualification route – Pic by http://www.bergleben.de/klettern

All in all it was a successful competition weekend for both of us and our team. Next time Ruben has to be in the mens final again. Luckily, there will not be a speed contest so that he will not waste any energy and is able to focus totally on lead. We are training hard now for another month. Ruben will compete at the Lead World Cup in Puurs on the 20th and 21st of September and there are some exams at school to come. We keep moving on.

All the best and cheers from Hannover,

David & Ruben

-> A video review of the competiton weekend in Neu-Ulm by http://www.bergleben.de/klettern:

-> The whole result of the Youth Lead cup and the seniors cup