Vive la France!
by Sybil Campbell-Bradford.

European Tree Climbing Competition

Nantes, the 6th largest city in France, played host to the European Tree Climbing Competition on the 6th & 7th May this year, and what a competition it turned out to be!

The French were also in the throes of running their own National Competition on the Friday before the Europeans, the three highest finishing climbers of that competition would be representing them in the Europeans the following day. The strong field of French climbers showed a high level of skill competing in their unique competition for a place to represent their Country. The SFA had organised both competitions to take place within a beautiful parkland setting, full of incredible wood sculptures with trade stands, catering tents and a childrens area where education was the main focus of the day with an opportunity for youngsters to learn about and climb some of the beautiful trees in the Park.

The newly formed European Operations Committee had arrived in France some days earlier, to help the French organising Committee with the competition details and setting up the trees. A total of 40 climbers took part from 13 Countries, including lady climbers from Holland, France, Germany and the UK.

The preliminary rounds took place on Saturday and Sunday morning, followed by the Ladies and Mens Masters Challenge on Sunday afternoon.

The Aerial Rescue was won by Ronnie Eppel of Germany, 3 points ahead of 2nd place which went to the UK’s Stewart Witt, with John Turnbull, (UK), 1/3rd of a point behind taking 3rd position. The Oak tree used for this event was set up and judged by Massimo, and Rene from Italy together with Tage Ronne from Denmark.

The Throwline event was again Ronnie Eppel’s with 18 points, followed closely by Gross, and Hoffmann, both within five points of Ronnie’s scoreline. This tree was also an Oak, set up by the French and judged by Gabrielle Dovier and Bruno from France.

The Workclimb was won by Mark Bridge of Switzerland with total points of 81.33, 2nd place going to Francesco from Spain, third place going to Walter Hak of the Netherlands. Their total scores in this event were all within 1.5 points of each other.

The Oak tree used for the workclimb was set up by Craig Johnson, chairman of the European Operations Committee together with Gabrielle Dovier and John Coles from Norway.

On the Sunday morning the Footlock event was hotly contested by the top three climbers with only 61/100ths of a second to separate them, eventually being won by John Turnbull of the UK, who also established a European record with his time of 16.48 secs., for 50 feet.

Llikewise, the Speedclimb saw less than a second between the first three places, in a gnarly old Oak tree, the only one with low branches following the high pruning of most of the trees to stop people climbing them ! Spains Francesco took the honours, Mark Bridge from Switzerland was 2nd, and John Turnbull from the UK placed 3rd.

The Masters Challenge was set to be a real battle between Mark Bridge, Ronnie Eppel, John Turnbull and Jelte Buddingh, and all demonstrated exceptional skill and style during their climb, which was needed as the fine weather broke suddenly and the rain lashed down on the last two climbers. Ronnie Eppel using SRT completed his climb in 21 minutes, gaining high bonus points for style, planning, safety and speed, with Mark Bridge, the defending European Champion, also impressing the judges as both climbers nailed their first throw into the tree. John Turnbull and Jelte Buddingh also completed challenging climbs as the weather deteriorated, but the eventual European Champions Yellow Shirt went to Ronnie Eppel, Mark Bridge coming 2nd with 3rd place to John Turnbull.

The ladies competed within their own group during this Championship, with the local interest focusing on French girls, Katie Trottier and Camille de Muinck. Abbie Bengston from the UK also competed as did Paloma Ziegelmeier, (Germany) and Yzoske Odden from The Netherlands. Throughout the preliminary rounds, Paloma and Camille closely matched each others scoring with Camille taking first place in the Speedclimb, Aerial Rescue and the Workclimb, with Paloma coming a close second and taking first place in the Footlock.

The ladies Master Challenge was between Camille and Paloma, climbing a challenging tree to achieve European No 1 status. This unfortunately turned into a one horse race as Camille, roared on by her local crowd could only watch helplessly as her handsaw, with a life of it’s own, flipped out of her scabbard and hit the ground, disqualifying her from the event. A really unfortunate thing to happen as she had started the climb well and looked to be well on her way to a yellow shirt. Paloma entered the tree and completed her climb with great skill and without any unexpected falling objects, and shared a well earned winners podium with her partner, Ronnie Eppel from Germany to make it a real family affair !

The team event was won by the Netherlands, the UK were 2nd, 3rd place to Italy and Germany, 4th.
The presentation took place later on Sunday, fortunately in a large marquee, amid a thundering rain storm which almost drowned out the accolades from the assembled company, who although they had showed a healthy competitive team spirit throughout the competition, in the spirit of these events, cheered on the winners regardless of their own placings and teams results.

Next year we go to Belgium in June for the European Finals, we hope to see even more of you all there for another brilliant event.

The full results are available from www.isa-tcc.co.uk
Photographs, courtesy of Natalie Cantor, nicknatsltd@btconnect.com