G Force 2024

Sat 2nd- Sun 3rd March

1st place: Paola Neal Fagan/ Michael O’Neill

2nd place Amy Rafferty/ Mark Scanlon

3rd place Ciara Lawler/ Sean Henchion

G Force is all over for another year….

There was some pretty spectacular climbing to see over the course of the weekend, with competitors travelling from every corner of the country, as well as further afield.

Saturdays qualification was in a different format to previous years, with 3 attempts per problem and Zone holds worth 2 points instead of unlimited goes for 2 points. The problems were hard (sorry if they were a little too hard, we promise to tone it down again a bit next year!) and the highest scores returned were by Dominic Burns on 284 in the men’s and Paola Neal Fagan on 247 in the women’s.

Saturday’s semi final saw 20 men and 20 women qualify and tackle the round of 4 problems climbed on-sight and in a 5 mins on/ 5mins off format. The women got to ease into the round, with a relatively easy first problem. Problem 2 and 4 challenged the lower qualified competitors, but the top half of he field were all on 3 tops, though mainly separated by attempts. Problem 3 was the real challenge, a pretty big intimidating jump. The setters has envisioned it as a paddle-dyno, but in an impressive display of strength Carla Mullarkey was the first to secure the top by stopping on the first hold of the paddle sequence. 4 other competitors topped the dyno to secure 4 tops each, with Ciara Lawler taking 6th place with 3 tops and a countback to a strong Qualifcation round.

Problem 1 for the men involved a tricky run across some blue volumes, followed by a technical mantle which saw plenty of tops but no flashes. Problem 2 was a co-ordination jump, followed by some small crimps and started to really split the middle of the field. Problem 3 was another dynamic climb- this time a big sideways ‘lache’ style jump to some really poor holds. Sean Henchion was the first to stick the move, despite dropping the right hand hold. Dom and Michael also stuck the zone, but unfortunately there was more hard climbing above, which no-one managed to complete. Problem 4 on the slab saw lots of different approaches and successful tops and a lot of try-hard to secure the zone.

After all this, it was time for pizza, while the setters stripped the wall to prepare for finals…

The finals round kicked off with some technical and committing climbing on volumes for the Women and some seriously slopey compression for the Men. Ciara Lawler, Amy and Paola topped the women’s problem, while the men’s one saw many competitors fall off the final hold. Problem 2 was a dynamic and compression problem for the Women which saw a top from Paola and a zone from Ciara Burgoyne. The men’s problem was a slab with a very difficult start and a tenuous second half. Few competitors got more than 1 chance at the second half as the tricky start ate through their time. Mark Scanlon really made his go count- having gotten established on the start on his 5th attempt, he went on to secure the only top of the boulder.

Problem 3 for women had a slippery and frustrating start, Amy and Ciara Lawler eventually worked it out to secure the Zone, but Paola flashed the problem in great style to gain her 3rd top of the round. The men’s problem involved a jamming start and some crimps, which unfortunately no one had enough juice left for. Problem 4 was a hard co-ordination jump for women, which unfortunately they didn’t have enough juice for! In the men’s, it was still all to play for on the final problem. Michael O’Neill was the last competitor out and the only person to top, bumping him from 4th place to overall victory.

In particular, we would like to thank the team at Gravity put a huge effort into the organization in the lead up, tidy up and on the day, with every staff member playing a vital role. Our regular route-setters, Brian Hall & Conor Orr, Angela Carlin & Ricky Young were joined by Percy Bishton to create the problems for this years comp. Ciaran once again sacrificed his voice to the cause of MC and Johnny Mc Dowell was on music and sound. Terry O’Connor headed a team of volunteer judges and Eleno Leouchev & Gareth Gibbons captured the action over the 2 days.

And finally, thanks again to our sponsors….