Eighty-third parkrun

Hot and humid this morning with a big bank holiday field, but still managed an OK time and decent enough place. Rather to my amusement, this week's top 30 finishers showed a strange cluster of names: six people called either Sam or Samuel.

With D busy with wedding errands — a couple of other regulars were running in veils and bride-to-be sashes — it was just me and A this week — with A picking up another PB. Next week we're hoping for a bigger group: the plan is for P&D's wedding party to turn up for parkrun; I know some people have been practicing their distance running, ready for the day-after-the-big-day.

Lead climbing from Arco

Intriguing competition from Arco, with slightly odd results and some of the favourites losing out but leaving no doubt that the winners were the best people on the day on their particular routes.

The women's semi-final routes featured a hard crux which led to a lot of people falling at the same point, but there was enough separation to generate a final list. It was particularly good to see Molly Thompson-Smith making finals — the first British woman to do it since 2004! — and to see Ashima Shiraichi in action — it's hard to believe, given her list of achievements and her reputation, that's still only 16 years old.

The men's semis route also featured a hard crux, but more people made it through giving a clearer separation. After his performance in Munich, it was fun to watch Alex Magos absolutely storm the semis; and if his finals campaign didn't go to plan, then it just goes to show how bad luck can catch out even the very best.

The finals routes were extremely tough, with the women's featuring a hard cut-loose that troubled a lot of people. Kim Jain was the only person to hold it with an awesome show of core power, only to get timed out slightly further on — a real shame, given that she looked like she was still fresh and had only a handful of moves to go. The men's featured an odd dyno low at move twelve which bothered a lot of people: Jacob Schubert took a while sizing it, but got back into his groove; Megos really struggled; while Ondra, who had the reach, did the move statically.