Page 54 - 2020 AMA Summer

SPORTCLIMBING
SPORT CLIMBING UPDATE
Vice-Chair Sport Climbing (Patrick Snow) + Will Jung
In March 2020, as I write this, the extent and duration of the disruption caused by COVID-19 remains unclear. The inaugural inclusion of sport climbing as an Olympic sport certainly won’t
happen in 2020. Neither will the Army regional lead competi- tions happen in spring, nor the Army champs in May. Will the delayed inter-services run in Sep/Oct? We don’t know. Will the Armed Forces Bouldering League 2020/21 still happen? We don’t know. Will next season be dominated by people who have spent 6 months hanging from their (previously decorative) finger- boards, or will all those people sit it out due to tendon injuries? We don’t know. Will these questions seem unduly pessimistic, quaintly parochial, or even mis-judged? We don’t know.
In the absence of any certainty about what the future holds, we can at least look back on the 2019/20 bouldering season as an outstanding success. Over recent years the Armed Forces Bouldering League has been becoming increasingly popular across all three Services, this has been clearly demonstrated by this year’s attendance with the highest figures seen since the initial implementation of the league. The highest number of attendees at a single round of AFBL 2018/19 was ~80, whereas
this year the highest and lowest number of attendees at a single round were 173 and 125 respectively. This significant increase in popularity has in turn improved the standard of bouldering across the ever-increasing cohort of individuals who have been attending these events. This is greatly helped by the standard of the venues and the quality of the problems that have been set for the competitors.
Sports Climbing in general is a growing sport within the Armed Forces and the attendance this year at these events has been a true reflection of its ever-increasing popularity. The future is bright for Army Sports climbing.
This success would not have been possible without the tireless effort of the organiser (Kenny Geoghegan, Army) and the venues providing the opportunity to host the events. The 5 rounds in 19/20 were held at: The Climbing Works (Sheffield); Harrowall (London); Bloc (Bristol); Boulderhut (Chester); and Rockstar (Swindon). We sincerely hope that these, and the many other excellent commercial climbing walls across the country, will be able to re-open in due course.
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