G Force 2023 - 11th & 12th March

What a weekend of climbing- we hope you enjoyed it all as much as we did! You can chec out some fantastic photos of the event here

We had a fantastic field of entries for this year’s G Force, with 250 entries in total. Saturday’s qualification round seemed to be just right, with everyone finding something to challenge them and a lot of positive feedback about the boulders.

On Sunday morning, the top 20 went forward to a hard semi-final round, in which 2 tops was enough to secure a finals place. The setting team; visitors Percy Bishton, Rob Napier and local Conor Orr had devised some fiendishly hard problems for the semi-finalists. Abigail and Archie kicked off the semi-final in 20th position and a flash of F1 from Abigail got the round off to a great start. At the top end of the ranking, there were a few changes- Dom Burns missed out on his usual finals position while Faith moved up several places to secure a finals spot.

This year the finalists came out to some slab problems to begin. The female competitors had to contend with some classic slippery slab climbing, while the men had a balancy step on, followed by a spectacular jump and a tricky mantle to finish. Amy and Mark were out first and with 2 easy flashes made the route-setters a little nervous that this one might not be hard enough, but as the other competitors followed, it was clear that Mark and Amy were on top form. There were flashes from Rory, Daragh and Michael in the men’s and just one more flash of F1, from Caelan in the females.

Problem 2 brought the men down to the far end of the wall, where an extremely tricky start on the vertical section led into some powerful moves above. Another flash from Mark and tops from Ciaran and Michael put them ahead of the rest of the field.

F2 was a really powerful problem in the centre of the wall, with some very slopey pinches in the top section. Amy, Jessica & Caelan flashed this one, but several very close attempts from the other competitors resulted in a lot of fatigue as they repeatedly wrestled through the pinches, only to miss out on the finish hold.

F3 was a technical and hard to read volume problem, with many options and a bit of jamming (if you like that sort of thing). This one saw off all competitors except Caelan, now firmly in the lead, though there were plenty of zones and lots of try-hard!

M3 really cinched podium spots for the 2 Scanlons, with a flash from Ciaran and a second try top from Mark. Both brothers looked really strong on this one and with Mark now on 3 tops in 4 attempts and Ciaran on 3 in 5, they were going to be hard to beat and harder to separate!

Problem 4 for the men went right through the steepest section of the comp wall, but the 2 Scanlons and Mikey all dispatched it first go, leaving Mark in 1st, Ciaran in 2nd and Michael in 3rd.

Women’s 4 saw another flash from Caelan, as well as tops from Victoria and Rhyna. Despite huge efforts from Faith, Amy and Jessica, none could make the long move to the finish, which left the female podium with Caelan in 1st, on 4 flashes, Amy in second, with 2 flashes and 2 zones and Victoria hanging onto a podium spot for the 3rd time in a row in 3rd place.

Huge thanks again to Scarpa and EB for their generous sponsorship and to Rascals, All Real and Ds3 Media for also supporting the event. Pictures coming soon!