Dennis Diaz: 3rd Asian Beach Games 2012

Monday, July 2, 2012

3rd Asian Beach Games 2012 - Haiyang, China (Part 1)

5 hour layover in Xiamen Airport

Dragon watching, fruit watching, just watching . . .

A day without Stan . . . is a day without . . . a loaded Mac

Sport Climbing in 3^rd Asian Beach Games Report

The Philippine Team for Sport Climbing for th 3^rd Asian Beach Games held in Haiyang, China comprised of Jason "Jao" Sauco, Jonathan "Stan" Feleo, Milky Mae "Mhick" Tejares and Coach/Athlete Dennis Diaz. The team departed June 15^th with Jonathan flying over on the 16^th.

Training for the event, we started formally February 2012 but regular conditioning already went underway as early as January 2012. That plus a carry over from last year’s training, which started March 2011 for the SEA Games gave us a cumulated continuous training of more than a year with switch ups of indoor and outdoor climbing to help break the monotony of seeing 4 walls of plywood day-in, day-out. In March 2012, me and Jao flew to Hong Kong for a build-up which gained us momentum with me finishing on the podium at 3^rd for bouldering. The standard IFSC format was followed for the event. In May 2012, again, both me and Jao with the addition of Stan, Kat, Ia, Krissie, Bern and Sig attended another comp in Singapore. Yuji Hirayama and Kim Donghyun did the route setting for Boulderactive 2012. The bouldering format was slightly different from the standard due to the huge number of participants. Over 70 climbers signed up for the men's open category and over 500 participants for the whole event. We finished with a bit of a disappointment, less than inspiring, but we're able to adjust our heads in no time. In June 2012 the Philippine National Games provided the team a last build-up comp for the lead category. Switching from bouldering to lead in the last month wasn't too much of a problem. I finished 1^st, Stan in 4^th, Jao in 7^th, and Mhick, in the women’s division, in 3^rd right after come backing mommy Krisitne Robles in 1^st, and SEA Games Bouldering Women's Champion Ina Flores in 2^nd.

Teams represent !

Stan the man in action on day 1 of the bouldering event

Isolation blues

Sol Sa of Team Korea

Min Hyunbin of Team Korea cruisin' the qualification route

Jason Sauco, Team Philippines

Stan Feleo, Team Philippines

Masahiro Higuchi, Team Japan

Yau Ka Chun, Team Hong Kong

Yuka Kobayashi, Team Japan

Day 1- 3^rd Asian Beach Games Bouldering Qualifying Round, June 17^th 2012

The temperatures were cool and provided the best conditions for climbing. The holds were dry and friction was best. Although the team isn’t too well used to climbing in the cool temps, warming up provided enough stimuli. A little bit of a shake and I'm back to my senses. I haven't been to these comps in along time. It all felt good but at the same time unfamiliarity creeps in. At the end of the day, all members of the team made it to the Semi-Finals. Short runs in the afternoon helped in getting our heads back in the game.

Day 2- Lead Qualifying Round, June 18^th 2012

A rest from bouldering, a day for leading. Climbing started around 9am as in the previous day and this will be the start for the remaining 2 more days of competition. We get ourselves into the Isolation Area at least 8:00am. Sleeping early and waking up early the next day became easy. There isn't any airconditioning but still the afternoons and nights weren't at all warm and humid. We also run in the afternoons with sweats on so that tells as much how cold it gets sometimes.

Always, the better temps are in the mornings when the climbing is done. We can't complain of heat exhaustion. Food in the athlete dining hall are divided into Halal, Asian, Continental and Chinese. Suffice to say we're never hungry or thirsty. Buses to and from the competition venue run like clockwork. Everything around us worked smoothly.

The wall used for the lead event was at least 3x higher than the usual walls we use for training and the holds used for both lead and the bouldering events were all unfamiliar. The level of difficulty for the competition was higher than SEA Games levels. The presence of contingents from Japan and Korea, both power houses in the World Cup Events, always placing in the podium, heightened the climbing levels during the event. Still, everyone in the team went to the semis. Two more days of competition. Everyday is a climbing day.