BK ATHLETE RIKU SINIVIRTA: Autumn 2022 competitions

@ifsc

World Youth Championships in Texas

After returning from Japan, I had time to be in Finland for about a month, before I participated in the IFSC Youth World Championships in Texas. The problems there were the best ones I’ve ever climbed after the ones at B-Pump Ogikubo. At the bouldering competition, there were five wonderful qualifying routes, one of which I climbed as a flash. On the other ones I only got the zones. I’m still a bit irritated that on the slab I copied other people's dynamic beta and didn't manage to climb the problem, even though I could have climbed it statically and more safely. It was a great experience to be there and see the world's best climbers in my age group.

After the bouldering competition came the lead competition, which is always a little problematic for me. I hadn't been lead climbing in probably more than half a year and this time was probably the eighth or ninth time I had ever done lead climbing. My performance started “very well” when I tied the figure 8 knot wrong, whoopsie. My belayer was clearly not expecting this and was completely confused. With his help, I managed to somehow tie the knot correctly and started climbing. Clipping the draws looked terrible and I had no endurance. In addition, I almost skipped one draw. It's starting to become a tradition while lead climbing. Next time my goal is to get through the qualifiers!

Nordic lead championships and Finnish lead championships

After the competition in the US, it was time for the Nordic and Finnish lead championships in Helsinki. My expectations weren't very high and my achievements weren't very impressive either. In the Nordic championships, I clipped the draws surprisingly well on the first route of the qualifiers, but the clipping on the second route was not successful and I did not make it to the finals. In the Finnish lead championships,  I had perhaps the worst climbing day ever. I couldn't find the flow and climbed really badly. Fortunately, both competitions were lead and not bouldering competitions.

@kiviclimbing

Tallinn Boulder Festival 2022

In November, I went to Tallinn for the @kiviclimbing climbing festival, even though I had slightly injured my shoulder just before. I was accompanied by my friends Aaron and Joonas, who made the trip really fun. The trip started well when we wandered for a long time in the old town and got to experience the local Uber rally drivers. On the day of the competition, I felt really good and my shoulder wasn't too sore. After a long and good warm-up, I started climbing and my goal was to flash all 35 qualifying problems. The routesetters seemed really pleased when I fell at the very beginning on a super easy route after my foot slipped. From the qualifiers I got to the finals in first place with 33 flashes.

We were almost late for the finals because we had gone out to eat pizza and ordered excessively large pizzas. We made it to the isolation in the last minute and got a good warm-up on the super cool training wall. My shoulder had been a little sore before this competition and now after the qualifiers it felt significantly worse. Fortunately, I was able to focus enough on the wall so that it didn't interfere with my climbing. The final problems were not too difficult and they were really fun. The atmosphere was great and I was able to relax  and have fun on the climbing wall. Joonas [Salmi] won the competition by far with 3 flashes and I myself ended up in second place. After the finals, we stayed at the gym and climbed a few more problems on the training wall.

I'm looking forward to the upcoming competitions!