What is it like to Judge an IFSC Bouldering World Cup?

Ready to judge at the 2014
Toronto IFSC Bouldering
World Cup. Boy do I need a haircut!

This weekend I had the privilege of serving on the judging team for the 2014 Toronto IFSC Bouldering World Cup, held at Gravity Climbing Gym in Hamilton. You can occasionally glimpse me in the footage!

I’ve judged at a number of local Tour de Bloc, Summer Sweatfest, and OCF Youth bouldering competitions, so I’ve got reasonable confidence in my judging ability—but nevertheless leading up to the event I felt nervous.

What if I made a mistake and embarrassed my community? Literally some of the best competition climbers in the world were in attendance. Ideally, you avoid making any obviously wrong calls—yet it can happen that you make the right call, and it still generates a controversy.

The night before, the judging team met with IFSC Jury President Johannes Altner, Head Judge Paul Leday and IFSC Technical Rep Graeme Alderson. We reviewed the rules and format for the event, and the expectations for our performance. Every bouldering problem had 2 judges, so there was always a second pair of eyes watching each competitor in case the first person missed something.

My official Judge’s badge: I’m legit!

I was assigned to judge Men’s 2 during the qualifiers and Men’s 1 for the semi-finals. It was thrilling to be able to witness some of the world’s elite climbers working on a problem right in front of me.

Technically as officials we’re not supposed to cheer for the athletes, but it was kind of difficult not to feel the enthusiasm of the raucous crowd watching behind me.

Rustam Gelmanov shows his mettle: an anecdote
Part of the reward for serving as a judge is that you get an up close view of the athletes. Allow me to digress briefly:

Rustam Gelmanov eyes
Semi Finals Problem 1

I got a peek into the mental resilience of Rustam Gelmanov from Russia, during the semi-finals round. I’ve always been astonished by his ability; his climbing often features totally different movements that are enabled by his incredible strength.

However, for whatever reason he was shut down by the first problem, which I was judging. Every other semi-finalist was able to make at least the bonus hold, so I could hardly believe my eyes when Gelmanov kept trying and failing to make the first move on it.

I could tell he was frustrated. A lot of people would be thrown off by this initial defeat, and would have a disastrous performance after. Not being able to complete the first problem put huge pressure on him.

And yet — what did he do next? He reeled off tops on the three remaining semi-final problems, and proceeded to Finals. Truly impressive, and perhaps something to learn from for my own climbing.

No serious incidents; one appeal
As it turned out, my problems were easy to officiate — clear starts, straightforward bonus holds, and we didn’t experience any time-completion issues.

On Semi-Finals Women’s 4, my fellow arbiter Rolly Magno made a call that was appealed—the outcome of which would have affected who made it into Finals.

Rolly ruled that Anna Stöhr—last year’s defending World Cup bouldering champion—had not achieved the bonus on the problem. The Austrian team appealed that decision, and upon video review, lost.  The appeal is mentioned right at the end of the semi-finals commentary.

Defending Champion Anna Stöhr prepares to climb

Watch Stöhr’s attempt and assess it for yourself. She touches the bonus, but does not control it. Per the IFSC rules,

The Bonus Hold shall be considered as “controlled” where a competitor has made use of the hold to achieve a stable or controlled position.

If Stöhr had achieved the bonus, she would have made it into Finals. As it turned out she didn’t, and so 16 year-old Julija Kruder from Slovenia got to compete in her first ever World Cup Final. And Rolly was fairly pleased with himself.

A memorable show
It was fantastic to see so many top-level boulderers in person. Shauna Coxsey! Sean McColl! Juliane Wurm! Alex Puccio! Jan Hojer! Rustam Gelmanov! Kilian Fischhuber! etc.

Congratulations to Akiyo Noguchi and Guillaume Glairon Mondet on their hard-earned victories (and to Sean McColl for his bronze medal finish).

I hope that they enjoyed their time here and will return to compete again.

It was also so exciting and filled us with pride to witness the Canadian team climbing with everything they had. You guys are amazing! Lucas Uchida, we’re watching you...

Thanks very much to Lorraine Winger, the Volunteer Coordinator; Luigi Montilla, the Bouldering Canada Director; and Julia Bonnell. I sincerely appreciated this opportunity to participate. Organizing and executing a complex event at this level and scope requires enormous effort and skill; everyone involved should be pleased with the outcome.

Thanks to Gravity, my fellow volunteers, and the event sponsors. And thanks to all the climbers for putting on such a memorable show!

Results & Video
Full results: Women | Men. Gripped recap.

Semi-Finals: (climbing starts about 9 minutes in)


Link

Finals (climbing starts about 30 minutes in):

Link

Bonus: Chief Routesetter Chris Danielson discusses the Finals problems
Link


Other Climbing Posts I’ve written
IFSC Bouldering World Cup in Hamilton a success (recap from last year)
Why is Tree Climbing Illegal in Toronto?
The Secret Life of Iyma Lamarche, Rock Climber
Hurrah For The Ontario Access Coalition
Interview with Rock Oasis' Founder and President

IFSC Bouldering World Cup in Hamilton a success

Yesterday, I attended the semi-finals and finals of the IFSC Bouldering World Cup in Hamilton. Hearty congratulations to everyone involved in the organization and execution of this event!

Anna Stöhr on Women’s Finals 1, en route to her eventual victory

It was an invigorating experience to witness some of the world’s best climbers first hand, in action. As a climber, this level of performance is something that you dream of and secretly (if impossibly) aspire towards.



It was an Austrian-topped podium as Kilian Fischhuber took the Mens gold medal, while Anna Stöhr was the winner for the Women. While the hometown crowd cheered wildly for Sean McColl, it just wasn’t his day for victory.

I’d like to express my sincere admiration of all of the inspiring competitors over the weekend (and especially of Stacey Weldon, Kerry Briggs, Elise Sethna, Miles Adamson, Sean McColl, and the other participating Canadian team members).



Full results: Men. Women. The Hamilton Spectator’s recap. UK Climbing’s recap.

I sincerely hope the future holds more World Cups hosted in Canada. This particular competition was held at the 'new' Gravity Climbing Gym in Hamilton. The crowd was filled with familiar faces whom I’ve met at comps and gyms across Ontario and Quebec, and I’m certain they shared my enthusiasm.

Full replays on YouTube of:

• Finals
• Semi-Finals
• Womens Qualifications
• Mens Qualifications

Check out these amazing photos by Ruby Photo Studio (yay Aidas!), and this set by Bonuel Photography from the competition.

Dustin Curtis writes his perspective as one of the setters for the comp.

What a great event. Congratulations again to the participants, organizers, and supporters.

Thanks to Kate Smith for the invitation!

Other Climbing Posts of Interest
Why is Tree Climbing Illegal in Toronto?
The Secret Life of Iyma Lamarche, Rock Climber
Hurrah For The Ontario Access Coalition
Bring a Bouldering World Cup to Toronto
Interview with Rock Oasis' Founder and President

Gravity Brawl pulls me back to earth - TdB writeup

I'm not sure what's more painful -- taking that first shower after a bouldering comp, or waking up the next day! In the shower you scream 'Aaah!!' as you discover the myriad stings and cuts incurred from clinging desperately to rough surfaces. Waking up is more like a groaning 'Ooof!' when you're slammed by a deep and thorough muscular soreness in your core from the previous day's all-out exertion.

Comp poster (click to enlarge)

This weekend I had the considerable pleasure of attending the Tour de Bloc Gravity Brawl at Gravity Climbing Gym in Hamilton.

I had a great time. That sounds kind of repetitive if you've read my other TdB session posts -- but you know what, the Tour de Bloc organizers certainly seem to know what they're doing, in terms of putting together an enjoyable bouldering competition.

So all credit to them -- Jody Miall, Luigi Montilla, and the setters at Gravity -- awesome job guys!

Why does it always have to snow before I arrive at these comps?!

Gravity is located in a gritty metal warehouse close to the Hamilton Spectator. From the outside, it doesn't look like much (and if you don't know where it is, it's a little hard to find), but once you get inside it's a revelation. Tall, open, airy -- Gravity has a down-to-earth vibe that matches its industrial location.

The padding at Gravity could certainly be a little thicker, but whatever, other than that they have a wonderful setup. There's a large central space where people can hang out, congregate, and watch other climbers, so at the comp yesterday there was never any feeling of being crowded by the spectators. If only Hamilton was a little closer; I'd climb regularly at Gravity if I lived in the Hammer.

32 - one of the key problems. A surprisingly hard start; a powerful finish

As for the climbing -- my improbable string of narrow TdB amateur victories was broken. I struggled mightily, barely placing 4th in Men's Exp -- no Team V0 glory, alas. My nutrition and sleep weren't right in the days beforehand; I simply did not have the juice to take a podium spot. My lowest score was #15, and I couldn't muster up a better sixth problem (the amusing highlight was working on an overhang problem (#23) with a bunch of little kids, and none of us could finish it except one, and that one wasn't me!).

But as Tony Berlier told me afterwards, the important thing was to work through a day where everything wasn't clicking and to learn from it. And of course to have fun. So the results were mildly disappointing, but I didn't mind -- the problem setting for this event was superb.

The start for 34 - a small, thin, slappy puzzle

The end for 34 - heinous round finish hold

This time around there were two fantastic problems that entrapped me, #32 and #34 (shown above). I came soooo close to completing both of them -- I had one hand on the finish holds in multiple solid attempts on both routes, but in neither case was I able to make the match -- extremely, deliciously frustrating. On a stronger day I'm confident that I would have completed at least one of them. If I'd managed either, I would have placed 2nd -- but that's just griping. These two problems took all of my energy.

Slabby, delicate, pernicious crimping on 29.

Burly 30 (yellow tape)

More problem photos from the comp can be found here. Dustin Curtis (the gentleman who drove me home from Montreal a few weeks back) won in the Men's Open category. Yay Dustin!

Hurrah for Outdoor Research! A TdB sponsor.

I was stoked to win a Radiant LT zip top pullover from Outdoor Research, one of the primary sponsors this year. The shirt was a draw prize, and worth close to double my comp fees -- sweet! Thanks Outdoor Research for your generous support of the TdB.

Delightful isolation

I wasn't able to secure a ride to the comp, so I wound up taking GO Transit (why does the train stop at Aldershot?!) and tramping around Hamilton for a bit. It has a smaller town feel that I sometimes miss. The architecture is subtly different...

All in all it was another fun outing. I've been enjoying this process even though I'm not sure if I can take the next step in terms of ability. Despite my advancing years I think there's still room for improvement. If I can apply a steady training regimen I'll be comfortable moving to Open next year without completely embarrassing myself.

And one last note -- I want to say: Janek -- your mom is awesome!! (Haha, that sounds rude) Janek's mom graciously gave me half a sandwich to munch on; it really hit the spot. It was an example of how friendly the atmosphere is at these events. Thanks!