Vice Swiss Champion :) - 9. Juni 2013
The weekend after the European Youth Championships in Grindelwald, the first national event was carried out on the same wall. Unfortunately I sprained my ankle at the beginning of a training session on Tuesday the week before. Like last time, I wasn’t careful enough with jumping down and landed on the edge of the mat, this time twisting my other foot, my subconscious probably figured they should be equally screwed… At first I didn’t think I’d be able to compete but taking pain killers made me feel better soon and I couldn’t help it and still tried. I messed up and missed finals in a national bouldering event for the first time in almost two years :( Of course I was disappointed but I learned my lesson NOT to compete freshly injured, it’s just not worth it! I didn’t want to make the same mistake again, so I’ve been going easy on my ankle last week and tried not to put too much pressure on it, doing only campus stuff and some core training.
Resting paid off and it felt a lot better for the Swiss Championships in Geneva this weekend, although I still took some pain killers to be on the safe side. After the first round I felt completely wrecked, the problems were really powerful and I didn’t feel at my best due to a cold I caught last week. Thankfully two tops were enough to make it into finals, although I didn’t feel able to pull on a hold again within the next few hours. At least my ankle didn’t cause me any trouble and after watching the finals of the Youth A, I even felt like my body had regained some of its strength. Congratulations to Giuliano Cameroni and Noemi Langenkamp for taking home gold in their category! Now it was our turn and already looking at the problems got me totally psyched! I didn’t start as well as I’d hoped and hardly made it off the ground on the first boulder. Yet I knew except for Petra, who is at the time climbing in her own league, nobody finished the problem either. Boulder number two was more technical and it took me three tries to figure out the beginning and make it to the top.
Foto: davidschweizer.ch
Surprisingly, some of the others struggled even more with the start and only Rebekka and Petra reached the top as well. Number three suited me well and I managed to flash it along with Rebekka and Petra. The last problem was only climbed by Petra and with this amazing performance she got well deserved Swiss Champion for the forth time in a row, so strong! Since I needed less tries than Rebekka on the second problem, this made me Vice Swiss Champion in Bouldering of 2013! I still can’t believe it and I am so incredibly happy it finally worked out and I didn’t mess up in finals. I guess you can tell by the smile on my face how much this means to me ;) Big thanks to our coach Urs Stöcker who was quite satisfied to see his girls all making podium, all this wouldn’t be possible without you!
Foto: davidschweizer.ch
Cédric Lachat was the winner for the men, followed by Beni Blaser and Kevin Heiniger, congratulations! The whole event was very well organized, I appreciated the support by the crowd and enjoyed climbing on such great problems, huge thanks to everybody involved! Watch this short clips to get an image of the competition:
My written final exams went well and I can’t wait to be done with the oral ones in a few weeks. Remo already left for Rocklands last week and I’m anxiously waiting to follow after soon. Until then, I’m planning to climb outside as much as possible which will probably make Magic Wood my second home, I’ll keep you posted!