British Bouldering Championship 2026 Debrief
Welcome to the Inside Climbing podcast and I'm joined this week by Natalie Berry and Louise Flockhart, who have both won bronze medals at the British Bouldering championship in years gone by. And I thought we'd talk about the 2026 version of the British bowling championship, which Louise competed in. When I did research, I was like looking at both of you guys stats for British Bouldering and also Natalie for British Lead Championship and seeing Oh, yeah. You won British Lead Championship back in 2010.
Natalie Berry:A long time ago. Another life.
Rory Potter:And then you got third back in 2018, a little bit of a renaissance.
Natalie Berry:Yeah, yeah, that was like my first British Boulder Championships in a long time. Getting back into it, that was really good fun. That was like when I realized that I could try to be a boulderer and got back on the team, but yeah, interesting to try the new style and like mix with the younger climbers. It was quite a challenge.
Rory Potter:And Louise, you took a year off competing after winning bronze in both 2023 and 2024. How was competing again?
Louise Flockhart:It was definitely strange because going into both 2023 and 2024, when I won those medals, I was training pretty much full time. And my goals for those events were very much to make podium and to make finals. Whereas this event, my own expectations were quite different and I was kind of just using it as a benchmarking event to see what I need to improve on if I wanna get back into comps. So in a in a way it was quite nice not having those the pressure and the expectations on myself. And then also because I didn't compete in 2025 it meant that I was unranked so day one I was climbing at like 3PM and there was basically no one who I knew there which was quite nice because quite often you go into qualification day, you're in reverse or you're in success order from the previous year.
Louise Flockhart:So, like, the first 20 climbers are really good and it's really intense. Whereas on the Saturday, I just got up, went for a chilled breakfast
Natalie Berry:Nice leisurely.
Louise Flockhart:Walked past the Man U Stadium and then filled up to the climbing center at 3PM.
Rory Potter:It didn't make our job in media quite a bit harder because we were essentially all were waiting for you to come out because you were like the last person of any notes really in qualifications like oh we have to stay here
Louise Flockhart:sorry about that
Rory Potter:we can't leave early but yeah do we want to start off with women first since that was in some ways more straightforward So Emma Edwards won, Erin McNeice pulled out two days before, which assists essentially made Emma favorite for the event by a wide margin. And she really showed throughout the whole event how good she is and how dominant she is. She won every single round. She fell once in the final. It was really, really impressive from her.
Natalie Berry:Yeah, I think Emma's results last season were just absolutely stand out. Like I think she was definitely the favorite for me, your World Cup finalist, even though she didn't get to compete in the final. Yeah, I think it was hers to lose really, and I think these events they always have quite a lot of pressure riding on them for the top British athletes, so I think as soon as Erin dropped out she would have realized like, this is my chance to take a win in her first BBC's title, so yeah, she did really well to keep it together in each of the rounds.
Louise Flockhart:Yeah, absolutely, I would agree. Emma's I used to compete against Emma back in the day, I say back in the day, it's about two years ago and her acceleration over the past two years has been crazy. Basically since she finished high school, starting to train full time, she really made the most of that opportunity and her performance has just come on so quickly. Quite similar to what we saw with Erin, like two, three years ago. So I'm actually really excited to see what Emma gets up to this season on the World Cup stage, because she really deserves all of the success that she gets.
Louise Flockhart:And I do really wanna see her in a final because I was actually at the Prague World Cup last year, and it was so bad that they couldn't compete in that final. So, yeah, I hope Emma has a good season this year.
Rory Potter:When I think about the British athletes, there's kind of in the women you have Erin and Emma are the top two who are the world cup athletes and have really shown how well they've done. And then you have like a group of athletes below them who are really, really good sort of locally and will compete and do a lot of the comps and win lots of the comps, which I think Louise, you would have been part of that group.
Louise Flockhart:Probably.
Rory Potter:But like Zoe and Lucy, because Lucy came back from injury. My understanding she was out last year. And then you've got, this is where it's so many Isabella's like Isabella at Eddington. Is she an Isabella or is she Izzy or?
Natalie Berry:I think she's an Izzy. Izzy.
Louise Flockhart:Izzy, Izzy Edgington.
Rory Potter:Izzy Edgington. So you got Izzy Edgington.
Louise Flockhart:Yeah. They're all Izzys unhelpfully.
Natalie Berry:Wow. There's like four, three Izzys, three Izzys, oh, slash Iggys and Olivia. So very confusing.
Rory Potter:And Eugenia, and then you have some of the younger athletes like Izzy Bridgens and it was Iggies first final BBC senior final as well. So who for you stood out? Cause you guys probably know them far better than I do.
Natalie Berry:Louise, you go first. For me,
Louise Flockhart:well, I actually couldn't really watch that many of the rounds. I only watched the final and I actually had to leave the venue. So I was just watching the live stream too. But for me, I think the standout athletes are the ones who are up and coming. So Zoe and Eugenie have a lot of experience, but Izzy Bridgens, for example, has just come up from the junior scene and she's actually secured, I think, part of The UK sport performance program for this year, which is really impressive.
Louise Flockhart:Fay McDougall wasn't in finals, but she's also qualified for that. So Izzy, her performance has been really impressive. Also Iggy's super young, think this is probably the first year where she's actually eligible to compete in seniors so to be in finals was really impressive and for me a standout moment for her was Boulder four in the semi finals. Basically everyone it's the lache boulder. Everyone was coming out looking so confused.
Louise Flockhart:I tried that boulder, I could not generate this swing for the life of me. And Iggy literally came out and made it look so easy and so smooth and she's one of the shorter competitors and I feel like with dynamic movement people always say, oh, you're so advantaged if you're tall. But Iggy on that boulder showed that, no, it's not about your height. It's about your skill level, that was a really impressive one for me. Also, Livy Ghent, I haven't seen I've competed against her a couple times before, but she hadn't really been on my radar till this year, so that was nice that she got to make finals as well.
Natalie Berry:Yeah. I'd say watching Iggy on the last day on the livestream was amazing. It was really funny actually because there were so many comments on the YouTube stream being like, this problem's impossible, the setters have overcooked it, it's too far, like it's not physically possible. And it did look really hard from that angle, like it just looked like you wouldn't be able to generate enough force and land it properly, but she just came out and just did it so easily. That was a really special moment, probably like, yeah, one of the standout moments.
Natalie Berry:Other people that stood out, I think Zoe Peeterman's is like so impressive, like so consistent. I think she's, I should have checked, I'm pretty sure she's made a podium in pretty much every British, like BBCs, BLCCs in the last few years. Like she's just so consistent across both disciplines. I'm pretty sure there was definitely talk about her, like she podiumed in every last year certainly.
Louise Flockhart:She definitely was on the podium last year and the year
Natalie Berry:before, But she's just always like in the mix and had a really good Boulder World Cup season last year and great that she's stamped a ticket for next year as well. And Eugenie Lee, she's also working full time as well, I think, so it's always impressive to see her, yeah, keeping up in the top, in finalists. She was fifth, I think.
Rory Potter:So what was, Lucy's injury, Louise?
Louise Flockhart:Yeah, Lucy had a finger injury for most of last season, which meant that she missed out on a lot of both junior and senior opportunities, but she did come back in for UFO championships last year and had a really good performance out there. So that was nice to see. And to my knowledge anyway, she's fully back now. Not like I know her injuries have gone, so I think she'll probably be looking to have a pretty good season.
Rory Potter:This is also a selection event for all of the athletes. It's not just a, who is the best in Britain. It's also really important for people who want to go and do world cups next year, who want to go and do the European cups, which that circuit is growing each year and becoming more professional as well and becoming more of a bridge between the local national circuits and the world cup, which climbing really lacks. It'd be exciting to see what will happen this year should be quite fun to see like all the newcomers, right? Because it's like, we're two years out for the Olympics.
Rory Potter:We kind of know what the pathway for the Olympic qualifiers is gonna be in 2027, which is gonna be really, really hard unless you're one of the top people in your continent really. And then, so everyone's focused. So 2028 is when everyone's gonna have maybe a chance and everyone who comes onto the scene in 2026, that's when they might get a chance to try and secure their spot. So it's going be exciting to see how the youngsters develop.
Natalie Berry:Yeah, I was really impressed with Iggy. I was at a wall in London the other day and she just happened to be there with some friends and yeah, she's so small, but she could do these dynamic moves that I just couldn't touch and I'm really tall. So yeah she's really impressive, just her movement skills are incredible and yeah I'm really excited to see her on the circuit. If she gets selected for the Europeans maybe.
Louise Flockhart:Think based off the selection policy I think she will be selected for the European Cups. But yeah, you mentioned that the British Championships is now combined with the GB trials, which I think is an interesting point. This is something that the first time that this happened was in 2025 and I my opinion is I don't really like it. I think it puts too much pressure on because it like puts too much pressure on the national championships. Unless you're one of a very very small number of pre qualified athletes, you have to peak or not necessarily peak but you have to perform at National Championships National Championships is now in January and the season runs from April to October so it effectively ruins your off season which in terms of long term performance is not what you want to do, in the slightest.
Louise Flockhart:And even those athletes who are pre qualified are still expected to perform at national championships, like Natalie mentioned earlier, Emma had a lot of pressure on that event but why should she? It's the middle of her off season. So I do think that is not don't know. I think the reason that it's happened is probably due to BMC finances and that's understandable. And they did put on a really, really good event, but I do think that it would be better if they could separate those events and not make the top half leads have to perform in the middle of off season.
Rory Potter:Could have the US system where you have have both events and you have to compete twice.
Louise Flockhart:Well, almost think that would be better to be honest. Yeah. Yeah. I I it's like, I think it's kind of at the minute, the way that it works is if you don't get one standout result, your whole performance from the previous season is basically irrelevant. So may maybe you could make like I don't even think semi finals and world cups count.
Louise Flockhart:Maybe they do. But you could have like, you could come one place out of semis three times, four times and it would be irrelevant and then if you slip off a boulder at National Championships you're off the team for the next year. Whereas at least if there was two events you could not slip the next time but it's tough out here and I understand why they have to do it but I'm not sure if it's the best situation for people who want to get on the team and people who are already on the team.
Natalie Berry:Yeah, think it's changed a bit since I was on the team, but yeah, having to perform at one event is even especially on home turf, everyone's like, oh, it's home turf. Like, it's an advantage, I don't think it is. I think it's like British climbers always seem to feel the pressure so much more at home than on like the World Cup mats. And the timing, I looked at the date and when it was in, when they moved the BBCs and the BLCCs to January, I just felt sorry for everyone because we'd have to be stressing about training over Christmas and New Year and I mean I guess it's better than the summer like it used to
Louise Flockhart:be
Natalie Berry:at the outdoor event in Sheffield. But for the athletes who were doing the World Cups that was worse, but it was maybe better for the athletes who weren't selected. Even though it was the middle of the summer holidays as well. But I felt like people were sort of, yeah, maybe a bit fitter then because they were in the season but I don't think there's a perfect solution.
Louise Flockhart:I feel like they either need to stick it right at the start of the season but then you don't really have time to do selections or almost like at the end of the season and then just train with that team over off season. But then again it's so hard because so much can change in one off season. So we're out here trying to coordinate an impossible job.
Natalie Berry:It would be good to have a more holistic selection but I know it's kind of difficult when you're looking for strict results and it's not like speed climbing, it's just, it's hard. So you have to sort of make a decision somehow, but yeah, I'm glad I'm not selecting, that's for sure.
Rory Potter:You sort of see this a lot actually through many of the national championships around this time. Like the Japanese BJC was the week after BBCs. And that is as if not, I imagine even more stressful for those guys as well. Because again, that's their only qualifier event and Tomoa quite infamously did not qualify for the lead team because he slipped low or z-clips low on one of the semifinal route for didn't get on the team that year. And we didn't do any of the lead world cups, even though he has made multiple finals.
Rory Potter:It's a hard process for everyone. So moving on to the men's competition. I was quite excited for the men's competition because you have this cohort in the men's group, which is Dayan Akhtar, Jack McDougall, Max Milne and Hamish McArthur and Toby Roberts when he's fit and well, and you have that team of four or five people who are all really, really good. And it was really, really cool to just Toby wasn't competing, the other four all were. And have four climbers who are world cup finalists, world championship finalists, world cup medal winners, Olympic finalists, and kind of that's not seeing, getting to see them perform was really, really cool.
Rory Potter:And I found it quite interesting just to see how they did across like the different styles of boulders and how across both semis and finals and seeing how they kind of split. So like Diane really showed how good he is on physical blocks in a final with two really hard physical blocks on it. And then Jack, I think did really, really well in semi final, which was maybe less physical. And you could really sort of see his skill set sort of come through on that. But Diane has been so close.
Rory Potter:He's been, he's got two bronze medals in the past. And so it was really awesome for him to kind of take the win and take the win in a field which contains the best of Britain.
Natalie Berry:Yeah, I couldn't predict it at all. I was like, it could be anyone's day, it just depends what happens. And I thought the setting in the final in particular was really good, like a mix of boulders, but yeah, incredibly physical on like the orange shoulder jump thing, like I don't even know, like the elevated door, like backwards press between two orange volumes. It just looked like a really shoulder intensive round. Was a bit worried that people would get injured.
Natalie Berry:But yeah, Diane certainly showed how strong he is, and I think it must be on home turf for him as well, because he trains at the Manchester depot, so maybe it does help climbing at your home wall to some extent, but yeah, manage the pressure really well.
Louise Flockhart:I think Jack always climbs so beautifully on technical boulders, So although I didn't get to watch the semis, I know how he climbs. So, yeah, that would have that would have been nice to watch. Then, as you said, Dayan's so strong. He's definitely, like, a powerhouse within the GB team, but all of the GB boys are so strong at the minute. And even like Luca Martin's kind of coming up too, he's super strong.
Louise Flockhart:It was nice to see him in finals. I think this set was actually pretty interesting, especially the slab boulder for the men at the start. I was confused, like sometimes I look at normally when I look at women's boulders I can understand what you're meant to do but sometimes I look at men's boulders and I can't even figure it out. And that was kind of one of those boulders, that slab. So I think the setting team actually did a really good job throughout the all the rounds actually of having sets that had interesting bowlers at the right difficulty level, that weren't just powerful, weren't just technical.
Louise Flockhart:They did a really good job of having variety in every round.
Natalie Berry:I really like that they now have their eighth people in the finals. It makes it a bit longer and a bit Yeah, I don't know. There's a bit more unpredictability in it and it's good if you qualify in seventh or eighth. I wonder how many finals we would have made in years past if it was eight, but yeah, it's a good mix of athletes.
Rory Potter:Yeah, the benefit of having eight athletes is you get, people get more chance to experience what a final is like, and they can get used to it. And you can have that wider representation within a final. And even just within a local national one is allowing people from different parts of the country to get a chance feel what a final feels like. Because finals, as both of you know, finals feel different from semi finals.
Natalie Berry:Yeah, it's good to get your money's worth as well, three rounds instead of two.
Louise Flockhart:And I do think as well, they do feel different but in the new format, when it's like not the I don't know, I don't know what the formats are called but in the new finals format, it does almost feel more similar to a semi final. Which probably does like, affect. I quite like the old finals format, but then I can see how the new finals format can be more interesting, but
Natalie Berry:It's harder to follow at home as well.
Louise Flockhart:Especially with a split screen.
Natalie Berry:Yeah. There's just few too many climbers, I think.
Rory Potter:It was because they ran men and women's at the same time in the final, whilst also having at times two athletes per gender out, which meant you had at the start of it four athletes out of the time. So very similar to like a single gender semi final. And so it felt quite chaotic at times. And being there in person was actually in some ways easier because especially when like the woman would top the boulder often earlier, and then you focus on who else is left. And it was because you don't see the split screen, just see the wall.
Rory Potter:I don't know, I felt it felt less chaotic than I think it was for you guys watching at home.
Natalie Berry:It was just sometimes they only had a split screen of two, so you only had like two out of the eight climbers at some points. Think at one point it went to three climbers, like a three screen, but then most of the time it was just two climbers and inevitably you'd get moments where someone was making progress or about to top but then the camera would move to someone who'd just fallen off on the mats or was celebrating on the mats, so the classic sort of missing the moment. But yeah, it looked quite difficult to coordinate that and I know that the wall at the depot is kind of this long competition wall and I'm not sure if a wide angle would have helped much. Maybe some people would have preferred that, but I mean, the shots were good that they were getting, it just, we didn't have enough of them to get a fuller picture.
Rory Potter:And I think it's also challenging just because of how many cameras you need to have, just to have that four way split screen and you have to have four cameras out constantly. And I think, and have the space for that and have it set up. My personal one is I like it when you have one men, one woman, six athletes in final, still prefer that as a format and you still have the two athletes so you can go between the two, obviously, which then becomes when you split the genders up as they have done for broadcast, you just get one athlete at a time and six athletes. I can see why they went to eight. I see, I understand why they've done what they've done, but I like having six, which maybe we'll have come back for the Olympics.
Rory Potter:Maybe we'll have six of the Olympics with only with 12 ish people competing in the first round that maybe we'll have the six finalists come back. But I think that worked better from a managing time and how quickly you went through the boulders.
Natalie Berry:Yeah, I think we've still got a long way to go with the broadcasting and it is getting better, but when the formats keep changing it's bit like constantly moving goal posts. I feel sorry for the production teams, but yeah, we'll get there one day, we'll find the perfect balance between everything.
Louise Flockhart:And maybe that day could be this month with the pro climbing league, that's another new format. That's meant to be more exciting. So we'll see how that goes and maybe IFSC would end up adopting it, but we'll have to wait and see for that one.
Rory Potter:Yeah, my understanding is that for the pro climbing league, like the seeding round and also I think the qualifiers for the qualifier round, both of those, think it sounds like from what font Wandsworth has on their website, it's gonna be classic format in some way and not the 1v1 format. At least that was my understanding of it, but we'll see. I'm excited to see, having new formats is always good.
Natalie Berry:Yeah, I guess because it's the racing format, it has to be, especially in the finals, it has to be, well, not racing. I don't like to call you racing. Racing, definitely. It's racing format. No racing, speed bouldering.
Rory Potter:It will be interesting to see how that works out and also how it scales. Because they've gonna have eight men, eight women, right? For a final and that runs for four hours with everything included inside of that. And so it would be interesting to see, or how would that work if you had a 100 people and or it's an invite only league. So you could just have it be 24 people, but how would you, if you were to have say 16 men, 16 women, 32 athletes, how long would that take?
Rory Potter:How will you run it all in a, if you did still want to keep the 1v1 format? So yeah, we'll see what happens. I'm excited to see how they try and scale that out. The only thing I had extra about the men was it was Max had a bit of a mare to use a Northern turn in the final things didn't quite go his way. And then he showed how strong he is and topped the hardest blocks.
Rory Potter:So it's very Max Milne in some ways.
Natalie Berry:Yeah, a good redemption story, think. But he's preselected, right?
Louise Flockhart:Yeah, I think he is. I really feel for Max. He was so looking so strong last season. And obviously, I'm Scottish, so I really like Max, so I might be biased. But he had his foot injury, which took him out of world championships, which is devastating because he's in such good form.
Louise Flockhart:And I think coming back into this season, it's his first big comp again. He definitely would have wanted to perform and I don't think he would have been happy with fifth, but the last boulder, you know, it still shows that he has got the form and he can perform so although it maybe wasn't a podium finish for him this time, I'm really looking forward to seeing how he does on the World Cup circuit because he does bring just such a nice energy and like, he always looks like he's having fun. Even though, well, maybe not on for the one, but he always brings like good vibes and he's a great person to have on the team.
Natalie Berry:Yeah, I think a foot injury is just like, it's probably even worse than like a finger or upper body injury because the trust you have to have in it for bouldering and especially the new style of boulders where you're just slamming your feet into walls constantly. It's not easy to come back from that and have the confidence I think.
Rory Potter:Yeah, especially to have that for slab climbs and so often, especially in world cups, like the slab climbs decline, which you have to do well on. And if you can't do well on the slab, then it makes everything a lot harder. I thought it'd be cool to talk about the route settings. Yeah, Louise, you praise that at the start and although qualifiers isn't streams, like the qualification blocks were also really good. And it was really interesting to see.
Rory Potter:And it was worth saying that for the senior finalists, the team they had Pierre Broyer, one of the French national setters who also set up the Olympics and world cups. He was part of the setting team alongside, so Dave Barron's led the team with Nathan Phillips and Euan McFayden.
Louise Flockhart:Well, don't mind talking for the women's qualification boulders since I climbed them and hardly anyone will have. But I thought that it's setting for a British championship is a hard job because what you wanna do is separate the top 24 competitors from the rest of the field, but the range of abilities within that field is massive. You've got people who maybe, this is their first national competition, all the way up to World Cup finalists and everything in between. So, in the women's field I think the cut off for semis was one top, but I think that it is actually better that they set on the harder end because I know for me, it's like if you're if you're getting in the top 20 and you need like four tops, it's just so annoying. So I do think they set the round at a good level.
Louise Flockhart:The first boulder was this blue blue boulder on, like, a vertical wall, and you started with a press, and then you had to do a pretty flexible, like, hip move, which speaking of, like, one athlete, Lucy Garlick, incredible climber. This move is probably like b four. Lucy, like, I think either couldn't do or spend almost her entire qualification five minutes on this move. Which is crazy because it was okay, maybe it was probably not v four but yeah, that just shows it's like, it's so important to have different styles because just one thing like that can shut you down. And then the top for that was like a dynamic move where you had to be pretty precise and that was one of the boulders that I topped.
Louise Flockhart:The second boulder was a very technical climb that involved a lot of precision footwork and a lot of dual tex footholds and like really small footholds and because I don't do that much comp style anymore I was so scared on the dual tex foothold but the key to unlocking this one was very much to just trust the, you had to stand on like the no text and then kind of manoeuvre yourself around the volume and then the last move you had to be very dynamic into a pretty bad hold. So I thought that was a good one. Potentially that was the most top boulder, One of those two was the most top boulder. And then the next three all got very few tops. There was this pink boulder that was very powerful.
Louise Flockhart:Think on the demo video in the livestream it didn't look super powerful but once I tried it like three times I was basically out of energy and that involved a coordination flip and then for the top section there was a big bicep y move and then you had to stand up into a far away hold, but it was really awkward to generate because there was no feet and you just had to go into a pretty bad hold again. So that was definitely power. And then by Boulder 4, I was thinking, oh, we need a rest by this point. No. It's apparently not.
Louise Flockhart:We've got to the steepest bit of wall for this one. And it was this red and yellow boulder that I think was probably the most powerful boulder of the whole round. And I'm not sure how many tops it got, maybe you know Rory, hardly any. And this start I found okay, but then by the top by the time you got to the top, was just really bad slopers, a really bad pinch, and a really powerful move, that was the one that stopped me as well. And then the final boulder was this black triple paddle dino, and a lot of competitors found the paddle bit really difficult.
Louise Flockhart:The holds were quite positive but because of the distance and the steepness of the wall, you really had to hit the holds accurately and generate with the momentum properly. And I watched a lot of people try it and they were really engaging their biceps and using a lot of power, but that is absolutely not my climbing style. And in my video that I watched back of me doing it, my arms are like completely straight and I literally just like swung on the holds like I don't know, I didn't engage a single muscle for that most. So that was definitely an interesting one and that there was different ways to do it. And then the top was just like a classic power, more power.
Louise Flockhart:So for a typical qualification round for the woman, I would say it was pretty powerful. But over the past kind of five years we've definitely seen the so it's male setting teams typically, but we've definitely seen them stop underestimating the strength that women have and start forcing more power boulders into the round, whereas probably like five years ago they would have been a lot less powerful and even the steep boulders would have been significantly easier. But I do think it's nice that they're no longer underestimating what we're capable of, especially the top end of the field like Zoe, Emma, Lucy, so powerful. So it's good that they get a chance to show their strength.
Rory Potter:Yeah, you needed about 44 points to get into semi finals, which is about a top and a couple of extra zones. So one top three zones and old money, which is quite hard. Normally I think it's like you're looking at, because qualifications is five boulders, you're looking at sort of two or three tops usually needed to get into qualies in world cups on average. And then the trend very much continued for the women's that the semifinal setting was also quite hard and that you needed, I think it was two zones got you into finals, which is an incredibly hard round.
Natalie Berry:Louise needs to tell us about the mantle problem.
Louise Flockhart:Oh no.
Rory Potter:It was my favorite problem of the whole round as well. Such a good boulder.
Natalie Berry:So good. It was the best moment.
Louise Flockhart:The the mantle problem. So basically, what happened on the mantle problem? Well, I come out and I'm like, yes, a weird boulder because when people ask me what's your favourite climbing style? I can I can only my only description is weird? I love weird climbs.
Louise Flockhart:Anything that's weird like cracks, volumes, I'll take it. So it's like, oh perfect, they've set one that I like. But I'm not like super strong at the minute. So by the time that I'd got through the bottom section, which was pretty powerful, especially the move out to the zone, I was kind of a bit knackered. So I decided, oh, like this is quite a comfortable resting position, so I'm just gonna have a wee rest, sit here for a minute.
Louise Flockhart:That was a bad idea. I got a bit too comfortable on that volume and ended being sat on the volume for one minute and forty seconds. Which is terrible, literally two thirds of my time in that whole boulder was spent sat on that volume. And I did get stuck, like the reason that I was on the volume for so long was because I was stuck on the volume. But luckily, I managed to get out of it finally after nearly two minutes.
Louise Flockhart:And I did did try and climb the top, but that was a waste of time and I couldn't get back up there. Yeah, at least I got a good footwall of it, but apart from that, I wouldn't recommend doing it.
Rory Potter:You made good progress on that one. Like not many people actually got to the top section and it only got one top in the whole round, but only Izzy Bridgens actually topped it.
Louise Flockhart:Yeah. That's kind of my like one that got away bolder because I think I could have done it after if I'd not been so flustered after getting stuck on that volume, I think I probably could have just thought about it a bit better and used Izzy Bridges did a really nice right toe hook on the underside of the big left hand volume and I think that was the unlock that most people missed, including myself. So if I could go back and try one walder again, would definitely be that one.
Natalie Berry:It was so harsh how it was like a hard bottom bit and then an equally hard top, but like even harder top. Was just at least, yeah, it was kinda harsh. But it was good. I think you've got a future in trad climbing, like mantling.
Louise Flockhart:Yes. You sound funny you say that. I do. I do actually quite like trad. So watch this space, I guess.
Rory Potter:I did feel like they saved all the tops for the final round for the women's a little bit. It did feel a little bit, especially of all of the podium topping all of the boulders and it coming down to attempts, which is a little bit probably sad, but I did kind of feel they showed how in the first two rounds, like they really made the selections they needed to, and they kind of tried to have fun in the finals. I very much like the semifinal boulders, the women's selection looked far better and far more interesting to me and I enjoyed more than they the men's, but then in the final, the men's boulders were more interesting.
Natalie Berry:Yeah, think that came across online as well because I guess the first women's boulder, I think pretty much everyone topped. And then I remember the paddle number four paddle dino was quite cool. The other two were like more power based, like pinchy. But yeah, the men's I just remember like the slab falling into that corner and then jumping into the crucifix between the blobs. I was like, oh, my shoulders are hurting just watching it.
Natalie Berry:So that was definitely more memorable
Louise Flockhart:For sure.
Rory Potter:Yeah, it was quite cool having some of those weird boulders . So first quali women's qualification boulder Louise is a Pierre block with the weird, it had like this like big kind of like you're doing like skate feats. You were kind of like dinoing and then going left, right, left in order to stop yourself. And you having that really sort of technical kind of coordination. And then the final in the women's, the semi final, like the final block was another Pierre block where you had the lache trust, really.
Rory Potter:That reminded me of Big Air in the peaks where you have to jump from one boulder to a slab and essentially not slide off. Otherwise you're going down the ravine between the two boulders.
Natalie Berry:So far, but Iggy did it, so it's not that far.
Rory Potter:And then the weird showed a mantle press one, that was a Pierre boulder. And the final hold was originally at the top of the wall and they moved it down to be lower down and underneath the press. So it did start off a lot higher up and then they clearly made decisions to make it easier.
Louise Flockhart:Well, heard that the decision to move the hold down was actually so that there was no like height bias and they didn't want people to be able to just cheat it by reaching. But I actually really like having the lowdown finish because I think it's just a bit interesting. I think, well, one of I actually just recently did a YouTube video which is like twenty twenty six climbing predictions and one of my kind of key predictions is that things are just gonna start getting a bit more weird. And I think national championships is like a place where the rootsetters kind of have the freedom to play a bit more. Especially in finals when you know everyone's already qualified for the team by that point.
Louise Flockhart:It's not a World Cup, there's no world climbing that's gonna dictate like what they can do. So I think that having the finish hole down low was just like a bit fun. I quite liked it. Yeah.
Rory Potter:Also gave great photo opportunities. Like I think Rhys Conlon's face when he matched was my favorite one of them up. He was so psyched for that.
Natalie Berry:Yeah, what was cool on
Louise Flockhart:the
Natalie Berry:men's jumpy into the blob crucifix one, I think there were about three or four different ways of doing it. Like, somebody jumped, swung and jumped straight into both of them, and then somebody, like, flew into, like, one side of it and then pressed around and turned around. Somebody else did it another way, so there were, completely different ways of doing the same move, which is always best for spectators and probably quite fun for the athletes as well.
Rory Potter:So Routesetter did a good job.
Louise Flockhart:Yeah, I'd say so. They normally get slandered in podcasts and reviews, so we'll give them some credit for once.
Natalie Berry:Yeah, it must be really good for the British team as well to have this experience of different route setters. Like I know we're doing more like training events with outside setters and IFSC, or world climbing setters, now but yeah, the more experience that they can get of different setters at different levels is better, all the better really.
Louise Flockhart:And I think it definitely will have been a conscious choice to bring in those external setters, because that's not just something that you fall into or fly someone across from France. But I think under the new head of performance, Laura, their GB team, although I've left now, it does actually seem to have improved in the in terms of the training set up and the initiative that they're taking in, like, the opportunities outside of The UK and bringing in external points of view or, like, just, yeah, external setters, external training camps even this week, earlier this week because the GB team's been at France on a camp and I believe that they're going to Japan later in the year. So I think it's great that the GB team have realised, oh, we can actually learn from training with these other countries. And it's also just fun for the athletes. So I definitely appreciate the fact that they brung in those setters from across the sea.
Rory Potter:So what are your plans, Louise, going forward after coming tenth, after not competing for a year?
Louise Flockhart:Well, tenth place. Sounds not bad, but it's actually my worst British championships result ever. So my first year I was ninth, my second and third year I was third and then now I'm back to tenth. My plans for this year, I haven't fully decided yet so obviously I did the British championships. Someone someone said to me at the event like, oh well done on your comeback and I was like, that wasn't a comeback.
Louise Flockhart:I haven't been haven't been training properly. That was very much a benchmarking event for me so I'm working full time at the minute. One thing that I wanna do is kind of get into a better routine of balancing training with working and, like, getting into a routine again. So I'm gonna use that use what I've learned from the first championships in terms of my strengths and weaknesses to kind of build a training plan and kind of just enjoy the art of improvement again. So, although I haven't quite decided what comps I'm gonna do, I'm definitely gonna be doing Quif because it's the last Quif.
Louise Flockhart:So I feel like I can't miss that one. North Face Climb Fest in summer, hopefully that will come back, which was the big deep water soloing event from two years ago. I'd be really keen to do that one. In terms of like outside of that, I want to get back to fun, I want to climb A's hair on the board. I don't know, I'm so debated on if I wanna go back to comps.
Louise Flockhart:It's so hard to balance comp climbing with education and I still need to go back and do a year of university. Also, comp climbing is not gonna make, I can't really afford to live if I try and do climbing full time. So I need to work. So it's all about the balance of trying to live, afford to live, trying to climb. But yeah, I I think at the minute, after taking the year off comps, the main thing for me was to get back to a place where I enjoy climbing and it's not a chore, it's something that I actually like doing.
Louise Flockhart:And that's kind of where I am now. I still have days where I just can't be bothered. But overall, I'm much happier with climbing and I like doing like I've got on my TikTok page, it's all just silly instead of serious like it was. So I would say if you if you wanna know what comps I'll be doing, you're gonna have to wait another few months until I can decide. But in terms of climbing, I will definitely be I will definitely be doing something.
Louise Flockhart:I just haven't decided what yet.
Rory Potter:I'm excited to see whatever you choose to do. You have a wonderful energy through TikTok and through Instagram and bring that sittiness to climbing because climbing can get very serious for a completely pointless sport and completely pointless activity, which we all enjoy a lot, but it is completely pointless. And it's, we do it for, to be silly and to remind ourselves. And I think you do a great job on your social media through TikTok, one of the very few TikTokers because climbing media mostly lives on Instagram. And it's like, it's been always great to see you be silly and do those things.
Natalie Berry:Yeah. I love your videos. That's so funny.
Louise Flockhart:Aw, thanks. Yeah. It's funny because, yeah, hardly anyone's on TikTok and I like have a love hate relationship with TikTok. Sometimes it's so good and then sometimes you just get like, just a ton of nonsense on there and I'm like, what is this app's terrible, I'll just ignore it for like a week. But, overall I think it's Yeah.
Louise Flockhart:Overall I think social media, if it's used right is positive. But it's about using it right because there's also a lot of negative content on there.
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