European Youth Climbing Series - Selection Day

European Youth Series (EYS) - Selection Day

The 19th & 20th of September will see EICA: Ratho hold their first ever round of the European Youth Climbing Series. This event will bring together the top junior climbers from all over Europe to test their skills on EICA's world class new Competition Wall - 'The Hanger Wall'.

As host nation for the event, the British Junior Climbing Team are allowed to enter 6 competitors in each of the six categories. Normally there are nowhere near this number of junior climbers on the British Climbing Team, therefore action was taken to hold a selection event to highlight the best 36 young climbers in the country. The EYS Selection day was held at EICA: Ratho on Saturday the 9th of May and saw over 70 of the country's most promising competition climbers descend on Edinburgh with the dream of gaining a chance to represent their country on the international stage.

The event consisted of 2 qualifying routes for each category, with the top 10 placed climbers progressing to the final. A selection of British Team coaches were also on hand to study the form and skills of the climbers on the day, to ensure all possible information was collected with regards to finding the best young climbers for the job. As usual, the Mountaineering Council of Scotland - Scottish Climbing Team rose to the occasion and showed some tremendous displays of strength and determination that lead to some very impressive results for the Scottish climbers.

Once again Scotland has shown at a national event that their youth climbers at right at the forefront of competition climbing. Congratulations to all who took part and good luck in the forthcoming British Championships and in September at the Edinburgh EYS! Also a big thank you has to be made to Edinburgh Leisure who once again assisted with route setting and made the EICA: Ratho climbing arena available for the event free of charge. Their continued support along with that of the Mountaineering Council of Scotland is currently helping Scottish youth climbing progress to exciting new levels within the sport.

Results for Scottish Kids:
Youth C (Year of birth - 1996/1997) This category are too young for EYS and were there to gain valuable experience!
Female
1st Eleanor Hopkins
2nd Nikki Addison
3rd Rachel Carr

Male
3rd Dylan MacKenzie

Youth B (Year of birth - 1994/1995)
Female
4th Jaime Davidson*
11th Ellen Barber
14th Christie Macloed

Male
4th Alisdair Johnstone
6th Stephen Addison

Youth A (Year of birth - 1992/1993)
Female
4th Ellen Macaskill*
5th Jessica McCaskey*
6th Jasmine Ryan
11th Abbey Niven

Male
1st Jonathan Stocking*
2nd Ross Kirkland*
4th Paul Williamson
6th Jonathan Field
11th Callum Forsyth
12th Liam Watson

Juniors (Year of Birth - 1990/1991)
Male
1st Robbie Philips*
3rd Connor Robertson
4th Jaimie Barron

* Climbers who have gained a place on the British Team for September's EYS. The other climbers will be assessed again on their performance in July's British Climbing Championships.