pushing standards since 2000: Rock On 2010

It's been a busy few months. On top of coaching sessions, i've had to conduct a number of Level 1 courses. In between squeezing in some time for my own climbing, i told part in this year's Rock On as well. Plus i just came back from Yangshuo, China. Will write more about that in my next posting.

Just a brief history about Rock On. This National Competition, primarily started out focusing on Lead Climbing, actually began many years ago, way before i started climbing. I'm not too sure about the exact year but its definately before year 2000. It was really huge back when it first started. For a couple of years, it was held at the Expo Gateway in World Trade Centre as well as Ngee Ann City. YES, our Ngee Ann City. The organisers actually build a 15m high pyramid wall right outside Takashimaya shopping centre and mind you, the wall sure ain't small. In addition, we had competitiors from all over asia coming to compete. Even Go Mi Sun, who was once Asia's top female climber flew in from Korea to compete in Rock On.

yes that's me when i was in JC1!!!

Anyway for reasons unknown, Rock On took a short haitus for a couple of years before it restarted last year in 2009. Due to rising costs, the last 4-5 Rock Ons have been held at Safra Yishun. Gone are the crowds you get at the World Trade Centre or Ngee Ann City. Nowadays it will be quite a feat if the number of spectators is more than the organising commitee. Perhaps it would be good to bring the sport to the masses rather than the other way round especially now that Sport Climbing is growing by leaps and bounds every year.

Like any other competitor, i have had my fair share of ups and downs in Rock On. Not many people know that i once waited more than 4 hours in isolation to compete, only to fall off at the 1st quickdraw!!! That was more than 8 years ago when the competition was held at WTC.

The last few competitions have been particularly frustrating. I was placed 3rd for 2 consecutive years, 2nd in 2004 and finally last year when the competition restarted, i thought finally this was my chance. But alas i peeled off on the last move in the finals after reading the sequence wrongly. An Indonesian completed the route and was crowned Champion. It seemed like i was doomed to be the perrenial bridesmaid for this competition.

This year however, was a little different. A World Cup route setter by the name of Jan Zbranek was invited to come down to route set for the competition. Instead of the usual onsight format for the preliminaries, the Open's participants had 2 routes to tackle, flash format. Qualification for the finals will be based on the ranking for each individual route. It was a refreshing change and i believe most of the competitors had great fun, watching one another climb. Though i did not climb too well for the 1st route, i did enough on my 2nd to guarantee myself a spot in the finals - which will be held the following day. The difficulty of the climbs should be about 7c and 8a respectively and they were both pretty good routes i must say.

The following morning threatened to be a wash out, with the skies overcast along with a slight drizzle. Luckily the rain stopped and we quickly commenced with the Open Categories. The final Men's Open route was HARD. Graded 8b, non of us made it to the crux which was right at the last 3 metres of the high wall, consisting of decent but small handholds (i tried the route and fell off the crux a couple of times before sending it last weekend after about 5 goes). During the competition itself, many of us were so pumped that we were falling off reasonably good holds 3/4 up the wall. To cut the long story short, i climbed 4 moves further than the 1st runner up and was crowned Champ! Some pictures along with a video of my climb in the Finals.

the results !!!