Good fitness from climbing outdoors, but disappointment indoors at worlds

After my trip to Kilnsey, it was time to look ahead to the world championships in Singapore at the end of August. The weather got bad which gave me time to train indoors. I felt fit and strong; my trip to Céüse had increased my fitness a lot.

We flew out to Singapore on the Saturday before the comp on the Wednesday. The comp and our hotel was on a holiday island called Sentosa and the wall was on the amazing sandy beach. Before the comp we just had one session at a really cool little wall where most of the teams had been training.

For my first route, I was nervous. I fell off with a deep left foot flag under my right leg, which limited my reach to the next hold. I still came 26th on this route. Psyched - I can still make the semis, which is top 25!

The next route looked like it suited me. I was climbing later on in the day so got to stay in bed for a bit which helps recovery from jet lag. I made a few trips down to the wall to get some beta for the route, but made sure I stayed cool and hydrated in my hotel room.

I made my final trip down to the wall, got warmed up, then the rain started. The wall was soaked in minutes. Climbing was delayed and no one thought it would carry on that day. But the routes were dried with towels and I was back at the wall warmed up ready to go.

The route suited me perfectly - good positive holds and flicks moves. Start went well. I got to one of the harder looking moves, did it. Heel up. Couldn't get it to stick. I panicked and flicked for the next old.  Almost caught it but I was off.

Overall I finished in 38^th. I was pretty disappointed. I was hoping for the top 20 to improve on my 25th result last year.

Consolation back home was a trip to Peak limestone with Jim Pope. I decided to try Mecca (8b+) and managed all the moves but the crux, and did some big links. Good effort to Pope who did his first 8a.