In August of 2022, six of the Moon Junior climbing team set off to Dallas, USA to compete at the Youth World Championships. With some exceptional performances across the board, from climbers both experienced and new to international competition, the World Champs was a great stage for some of the Moon Climbing Team. Below are a few words from each of our athletes on their experience in Dallas.

Photo Credit - David Xiberras

Daniel Smith - Junior Category

The Youth World Championships this year was my last youth competition ever, so I was really excited to see it was in Dallas, America (a place I've never been before). The first discipline I competed in was bouldering, and I'm happy with how this went as I made my first boulder semifinal in this competition. The Semis didn’t go too well but was just psyched to be there and enjoy the blocs. I found the style of setting a lot different to the UK which was cool because a lot of the boulders required a lot of tension, sometimes it was just board climbing!

Then I had a 3 day break and competed in lead where I made semifinals again, which I kind of expected because lead is my main discipline. Our semi final route had a really sketchy bit in the middle of the climb where a lot of people fell on and so did I, this was a massive disappointment because I wanted to end my year with a final but didn’t quite happen. It was still a fun experience and a good last youth comp!

Now I'm more psyched than ever to step it up a level and try to make it back onto the senior team and compete in more international competitions next year!

Izzy Bridgens - Youth B Category

This summer I was selected to be part of the GB team taking part in the IFSC World Youth

Climbing Championships in Dallas, Texas. I'd not been to America before, or a World Champs, and the chance to stay for two weeks with the GB team was amazing. We visited Target superstores, tried lots of American food (even all the sweets!) and enjoyed

the hotels outdoor pool. This year I had already competed in European competitions but had not competed against climbers from places like USA, Japan and Korea before. The standard of the climbers, especially those from Japan, was unbelievable.  Being able to compete and climb with these girls is crazy and to make friends from all over the World is an experience I would not get if it was not for Climbing. The blocs and routes were so much fun and the atmosphere of the competition was amazing. I made the semi-finals in both boulder and lead but after results from some of the Europeans I had hoped and dreamt for maybe a bit more. But I was super lucky to get this opportunity and I'm super motivated to try and get out to South Korea next year!

Photo Credit - David Xiberras

                 
Photo Credit - David Xiberras

Fred Williams - Youth B Category

As my first international comp, the YWCh was a great experience to meet the other nations and climb on blocs of that standard. I found America so different to the UK - all the food tasted sweeter and supermarkets gave us so many bags! It was fascinating to see the climbing styles of all the different countries, and good to use all the great walls in Texas, especially the Team Texas training venue. I had hoped to do better (I came 35th) but I’m happy with how I climbed and the two zones that I got were hard fought. I feel it was a worthwhile experience nonetheless and has prepared me for all the future comps I hope to go to! Hopefully I can get to Seoul next year.

 Jack MacDougall - Youth A

 Youth Worlds was a really cool experience, I met some amazing people and had a great time getting to know and competing with friends from home and abroad. It was really nice to spend two weeks with such cool people, and I’m already psyched to see them all again next season. 
Having never left Europe before this trip, it was kind of crazy just how subtly different things seemed. Everything was super-sized and so ‘American’. Safe to say I was a bit surprised to walk past the guns on the shelf in Walmart. Oh and I’m not moving to Texas for the climbing any time soon- definitely happy to stick with the blocs in the UK. Somehow it feels less like board climbing here?!

There were defintely some moments of the trip I was proud of. I mean, making finals in both disciplines at Worlds has to be pretty cool right? But to be honest I’m probably most proud that I just about managed to survive for two weeks living off food I cooked on a hot plate in a hotel room. And I only lost one bottle of liquid chalk- probably a pb to be honest!
I actually managed to avoid eating out for almost the entire two weeks (safe to say I wasn’t the most inspired by the American cuisine!) so I mainly just lived off food from my hotel room and, if I’m being honest, I’m not sure I made any food worthy of being described as “best”! My stir fries and fajitas weren’t too bad though I guess…
By the end I was definitely reaching the limits of both my meagre cooking abilities and motivation to keep eating nutritious food so I think there was a point in the second week where I ate a bowl of ready prepped (Tesco’s Own) udon noodles mixed with curry sauce. Yeah… that was a bit of a low point. Or that day when I ate about 20 tortilla wraps and not much more. 

I'm not entriely sure if the expeirence changed my approach towards training and comps. Certainly it gave me a LOT of motivation to come back next year once more with a bigger pair of arms and a better set of fingers, but I think the training probably just keeps on moving, doing a bit more and trying a lot harder. One thing is it definitely helped with my perspective on my training and competitions- across both disciplines I had amazing moments (I’ve probably never been more psyched than I was when I made boulder finals) followed by utter blank disappointment after said finals. Then in Lead I produced the worst performance of my season, which (thanks to some interesting setting…) ended up with a crazy, entirely unexpected, result. It sure felt like a bit of a rollercoaster, but through it all, the world didn’t end and sure enough I’m just back at City Bloc training as before. Turns out my self worth and lifestyle is not affected in the slightest by my competitions and results (good or bad), and I think having so many different experiences, feelings and results packed into two weeks really gives me a strong base to lean on heading into next year. After all, as someone pretty decent said- train hard, climb harder.

Photo Credit - Victor Hall Photography

Photo Credit - David Xiberras

Joe Xiberras - Junior Category

One element of youth competition which I particularly appreciate is being surrounded by a lot of like minded people. As I'm in the oldest category, I’ve been competing internationally against the same people for over seven years now and in that time many have become good friends. For me, having a connection with my competitors does not change the tone of the relationship but rather the environment of the competition itself. In this aspect of my Youth Worlds experience, a highlight would be discussing with my fellow tall climbers which sequences we could possibly lank before each round of competition.

I came to this year’s Youth World Championship with very strong intentions. Having missed lead finals by a hold at both previous two Youth Worlds I had competed in, I was confident this would be my year to make finals. I progressed to semi-finals, but in the process managed to sublux my right shoulder on the second qualification route. I decided to compete in the semi-final round regardless and while I didn’t make finals, I'm glad to have come away with a functioning shoulder. Next year!

Nuria Brockfeld - Junior Category

The youth world Championships in Dallas was the most important competition for me this year and also turned out as the best competition for me. My goal for this comp was to end up on the podium and I reached this goal by placing 2nd. I had one of the best qualifications round in my entire speed career so far and got into finals by placing 1st. The finals started directly after Qualifications and I needed to keep a clear mind and not let the pressure affect my performance. In the finals I felt fresh and confident because I had such a good qualification result. I had a close semi final but made it into the big final against Beatrice Colli from Italy. She's one of the best speedclimbers I know and I was looking forward to a fast race in the big final but I slipped right at the beginning of the race and Beatrice Colli won the race. Besides the competition the atmosphere was amazing. Meeting climbers from all around the world and making new friends was a great experience. We also had some free time and went to Dallas Downtown. Compared to European Cities everything is so much bigger there. After the competition we went to a famous burger restaurant and I had the best burger in my life. All in all the long was flight totally worth it and everything about the competition was just perfect. I had a great time in Dallas with my team.