Deep Water Solo 2016: Male Semi-Finals
Aug. 28th, 2016 05:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawylThe male semi-finals featured some extremely strong climbers and the setters had managed to come up with some formidable hard problems to seperate them out. Even the first problems was pretty brutal, featuring a hand-jam early on:
The head wall featured a powerful compression move:
Followed by a dyno to the big blue volume for the finish.
At this point, with the rain slackening, assistant judge Bingo decided to assess the mood in the audience:
Newberry and Frughniet were obviously immune to the rain — although as a good Cardiffian, you'd expect Rhos to have a high tolerance for precipitation; I remember being shocked, my first year there, by quite how much rainful the city got and quite how often it seemed to show up. Not, of course, that Exeter is any drier...
The second route found Mikey Cleverdon very much in his element. First there were a couple of the sort of powerful dynamic moves that he usually has for breakfast:
Then a nice middle section:
Followed by a convenient rest, which provided a perfect opportunity to work his home crowd up into frenzy:
The afternoon also featured some truly spectular costume choices on the parts of some of the competitors. This amazing, shimmery ensemble featured in yesterday's qualies and seems to have survived its dip in the River Exe:
While this competitor deserves nothing but greatest of respect, firstly for sticking the amazing dyno and secondly for eschewing the standard topless look of most of the entrants — as chosen by the climber on the left — in favour of a full-on fairy costume complete with wings!
The final problem in the men's semi-finals opened with a difficult dyno that caused more than a few of the competitors to drop straight into the drink.
After sticking a big long pinch on the roof and getting the feet out, the next move went up to a sloper and then to a big round hold on a volume above the overhang. Subsequent moves required a heel-hook match followed by a move up to a particularly tiny crimp.
The next step involves going out right to the tiny crimp to finish rocking on to the right foot, followed by a delicate move up to a similarly bad crimp on the top of the volume. Then it's out right to match both hands on another bad sloper with the feet on the first blue hold above the overhang, and then a very hard pop for final little pocket to finish. The problem was so hard that none of the competitors managed to stick the last move — although two got close enough to touch the final hold.
Within seconds of the last competitors going through, the barge was swung round to face the wharf to allow the setters to strip the wall and reset it ready for the finals, giving the rest of us an hour and a half to wander round and amuse ourselves until the start of the finals.
The head wall featured a powerful compression move:
Followed by a dyno to the big blue volume for the finish.
At this point, with the rain slackening, assistant judge Bingo decided to assess the mood in the audience:
Newberry and Frughniet were obviously immune to the rain — although as a good Cardiffian, you'd expect Rhos to have a high tolerance for precipitation; I remember being shocked, my first year there, by quite how much rainful the city got and quite how often it seemed to show up. Not, of course, that Exeter is any drier...
The second route found Mikey Cleverdon very much in his element. First there were a couple of the sort of powerful dynamic moves that he usually has for breakfast:
Then a nice middle section:
Followed by a convenient rest, which provided a perfect opportunity to work his home crowd up into frenzy:
The afternoon also featured some truly spectular costume choices on the parts of some of the competitors. This amazing, shimmery ensemble featured in yesterday's qualies and seems to have survived its dip in the River Exe:
While this competitor deserves nothing but greatest of respect, firstly for sticking the amazing dyno and secondly for eschewing the standard topless look of most of the entrants — as chosen by the climber on the left — in favour of a full-on fairy costume complete with wings!
The final problem in the men's semi-finals opened with a difficult dyno that caused more than a few of the competitors to drop straight into the drink.
After sticking a big long pinch on the roof and getting the feet out, the next move went up to a sloper and then to a big round hold on a volume above the overhang. Subsequent moves required a heel-hook match followed by a move up to a particularly tiny crimp.
The next step involves going out right to the tiny crimp to finish rocking on to the right foot, followed by a delicate move up to a similarly bad crimp on the top of the volume. Then it's out right to match both hands on another bad sloper with the feet on the first blue hold above the overhang, and then a very hard pop for final little pocket to finish. The problem was so hard that none of the competitors managed to stick the last move — although two got close enough to touch the final hold.
Within seconds of the last competitors going through, the barge was swung round to face the wharf to allow the setters to strip the wall and reset it ready for the finals, giving the rest of us an hour and a half to wander round and amuse ourselves until the start of the finals.
