Initially both Sze Ping and I thought that we would be competing in a 'mini' climbing competition in China. Thus we were utterly blown away by the grand reception we received on arrival at Youyang after a 7 hour flight, followed by a 7 hour boat ride. In addition to that, imagine how we felt when we browsed through the competitors list and found out we were up against Chris Sharma (Realisation 9a+), Tommy Caldwell (Kryptonite 9a), and Asian X-games Champion Lee
Jae-Yong.

The competition on the natural wall was rather unorthodox as it was done with a static top-rope, and we were allowed to use runners and a ladder to hoist ourselves up the wall. The route was 65 metres long
and we were given 20 minutes to finish the route. Unfortunately I ran out of time and couldn't finish the route, and thus was unable to squeeze into the semi-finals as I had planned to. Though Sze Ping did
not finish the route, he managed to get into the semis.

The finals took place the next day after some showers early in the morning and nobody could have forseen that both Tommy Caldwell and Lee Jae-yong would fall and slip off the wet wall thus enabling Sze Ping to enter the Finals as the last qualifier. You can imagine how happy he was. Even though he did climb well for the finals, he was still unable to finish the route and ended up in a respectable 6th place overall.

The women's category was won by Beth Rodden(USA), followed by Zhang Qing and Huang Liping, both from China. The competition on the natural wall was a real eye-opener as we got to observe the Americans who really excelled on these big walls especially Tommy and Beth, whose techniques were superb. It was a really good learning experience.

The competition on the artificial wall took place in the urban city of Chongqing, right in the middle of a public park. As usual, another surprise was in store for us when we realised that we had to compete not only in the difficulty competitions but in the speed ones as well.

Although both of us did reasonably well, we did not manage to get into the finals of the difficulty competition. Sze Ping was tied at 7th place along with 5 other participants while I was placed 13th. Only Chris Sharma and Lee Jae-yong managed to onsight the qualifying route.

The finals were really exciting with the route given a grading of 8b/b+ !!! Unfortunately no one managed to finish the route, not even the route setter, who did the demo on a top-rope.

The winners were:

1st: Chris Sharma
2nd: Tommy Caldwell
3rd: Lee Jae Yong.

Huang Liping, a very strong Chinese lady, won the women's Open, followed by Cai Shunyu(HongKong) and Beth Rodden(USA).

Next up was the speed competition. My timings for that was placed among the best during the qualifiers but unfortunately for me, I came up against an even faster climber during the knock-out round and did not manage to make it to the quarter finals. Sze Ping also did not fare too well and was knocked out before the quarter finals.

Overall the organisation of the competition was excellent and the Chinese were really hospitable. What really amazed me was how fast they managed to churn out the results slips to everyone within a few minutes after the last climber has finished his/her climb. I was pretty puzzled until I noticed a photocopier machine located right at the side of the wall. All in all, the whole trip was a very good learning experience as it highlighted what my weaknesses were. After coming back, I'll definitely work hard to eradicate them.

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