James Garden and Shauna Coxey truly are the Sky Masters!!!
The 2009 Sky Masters competition was held at the NEC over the weekend of the 28th and 29th March 2009 and the competition was fierce for the title and £1000 first prize.
17 year old James Garden sped his way to the Men’s title after dominating from the first round. James clocked the quickest climbs throughout the competition but had to overcome a very strong challenge from Adrian Berry with his time of 1 minute 44; Adam Watson finished 3rd with Rob Lamey in 4th.
Shauna Coxey overcame Leah Crane in an incredibly close final that was contested by the two stand out competitors of the weekend. Shauna clocked 2 mins 05 and Leah had to settle for 2nd place for the second year in succession. Natalie Berry came in the 3rd with Hazel Findlay in the 4th.
Competition Overview:
The event this year had some new twists and turns most notably a head to head format designed to excite and thrill the audience just as much as the climbers. The elements were also more demanding with some new and novel tests including a spinning “planet” along with the 18m height and 40m route of climbing. It was set to be fast and furious with speed the essence of the day but with a bit of difficulty thrown in for good measure.
Day 1:
With a virtual international line up of competitors the crowd were expecting the very best. The routes, set by Steve McClure and Percy Bishton, were tricky but would allow for some fats action with the ladies climbing 6c+ and the men on about 7a+.
With everything set the women got us going.
We needed to trim the 14 starters down to a filed of 8 for the Sunday finals.
The girls climbed both sides of the route and their times for each side were combined.
We then took the fastest 8 climbers through to the next round.
We also seeded the girls for the rest of the combination based on their rankings.
Men:
After seeing the women compete and the crowds swarming the men got their chance, and they didn’t disappoint. With 26 competitors we had a good 3 hours of climbing in order to whittle the list down to 16. Although there were no massive surprises the finishing positions, and therefore the seedings, were sure to show up some tricky 2nd round ties.
Mens Saturday Postions
1st James Garden
2nd Gaz Parry
3rd Adrian Berry
4th- Drew Haigh
5 th - Dave Barrans
6 th - Adam Watson
7 th - Adrian Baxter
8 th - Gav Symonds
9 th - Jordan Buys
10 th - Mark Croxall
11 th - Rob Haigh
12 th - Jonathan Partridge
13 th - Jonathan Stocking
14 th - Rob Sutton
15 th - Rob Lamey
16 th - Alex Fry
17 th - Dan Bradley
18 th - Alan Cassidy
19 th - Bruce Marsh
20 th - Nick Moulden
21 st - Adam Jeeworth
22 nd - Tim Lloyd
23 rd - Peter Duffin
24th- Nicolas Durand
Womens Saturday Positions
1st Leah Crane
2nd Hazel Findlay
3rd Shauna Coxey
4 th - Natalie Berry
5 th - Audrey Seguy
6 th - Kitty Wallace
7 th - Beth Monks
8 th - Mina Leslie-W
9 th - Rebecca Hall
10 th - Naomi Buys
11 th - Charlie Kelly
12 th - Diane Merrick
13 th - Ellie Howard
14 th - Ashleigh Naysmith
Day 2:
Once again the women started the comp off. The routes had been changed and the bar raised. The women were now on a 7a+ plus the competition rules also changed. The competition now shifted to a direct head to head with the winner going through to the next round. There was everything to play for and the standard of climbing was awesome.
The prizes went all the way down to fourth this year with prize money split £1000, £500, £250, £100.
Shauna Coxey came out first beating Leah Crane in the final while Natalie Berry took 3rd place and Hazel Findlay 4th.
The Men also went to a head to head format but with an extra round.
As some of the favourites were knocked out (Gaz Parry, Adrian Baxter and 2008 winner Dave Barrans) it was becoming increasingly obvious that young gun James Garden was the man to beat. After a truly sensational final James pipped veteran Adrian Berry into second with Adam Watson beating Rob Lamey in the 3rd-4th climb off.
