Berghaus athlete Molly Thompson-Smith recently confirmed her status as the leading British junior climber by winning two British titles. During an event in Bristol, Molly won the junior British Bouldering Championships and also secured the inaugural British Junior Bouldering Cup.
Contested for the first time in 2015, the British Junior Bouldering Cup consisted of three bouldering competitions, in Derby and Glasgow, and the including the national championships in Bristol. Molly won both the Derby and Glasgow competitions, but the pressure was still on in Bristol as she was recovering from an injury.
Molly had a comfortable qualifying round and was lying in second place going into the final, which saw the climbers tackle three tough problems. After the first two, Molly was in the lead, having been the only competitor to complete the second problem. Problem three required a lot of balance on a steep wall and although Molly couldn’t top the route, her rivals couldn’t match her position on the wall. As a result, she was crowned Junior British Bouldering Champion and at the same time secured the British Junior Bouldering Cup. The event was held in front of a big crowd, which was mesmerised by the climbing action.
In her five years as an elite junior climber, Molly Thompson-Smith has won over a dozen British titles, as well as being only the fifth junior British climber to win a European youth cup event. Molly has been ranked number one in the world and Europe for her age category, and is also the British senior lead climbing champion, which she won aged 15, making her the youngest person to win a senior British title.
Next stop for Molly are the senior British Bouldering Championships in Sheffield on 11th and 12th July, then the European Lead Youth Cup event in Mittendorf (Austria) at the end of the month. These events will be followed by the world championships in Arco in Italy, where Molly will be hoping to compete in both the lead and bouldering events. Find out more about Molly Thompson-Smith on the Berghaus website.
