Advertiser reporters inspired by Paris 2024 Olympics to try speed climbing at Newark’s YMCA Community and Activity Village

As gold medals have been decided in the speed climbing competition in Paris, two reporters put themselves to the test on an Olympic-standard wall.

While we (reporters Eloise Gilmore and Fionn Burrows) clearly haven’t got what it takes to win a gold medal — or anything beyond a participation award in fact — we had top-class facilities to practice on at Newark’s YMCA Community and Activity Village.

The village is kit-out for a whole range of sports, but our focus was on the climbing centre, and in particular the 15-metre-high IFSC Olympic standard speed climbing wall.

Speed climbing made its debut in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic games, as part of a combined competition with lead climbing and bouldering, and is now it’s own standalone competition in the Paris 2024 games, inspiring us to give it a go ourselves.

The women’s final, which took place on Wednesday (August 7), saw Poland’s Aleksandra Miroslaw win gold with a time of 6.10 seconds, and she also holds the world record of 6.06 seconds which was set in the preliminary rounds.

In the men’s final, on Thursday (August 8), Indonesia’s Veddriq Leonardo took the top spot with a time of 4.75 seconds, while the US climber Sam Watson holds the men’s world record with a 4.74 second climb.

We knew we weren’t going to be challenging these incredibly fast times, but we had high hopes to make it up the wall successfully.

I had done some bouldering as a teenager but not for many years, and Fionn too hadn’t climbed since a childhood school trip, so there was mixed feelings about how we would perform on the speed wall.

Unfortunately, the Olympic athletes really do make it look significantly easier, and our medal dreams were quickly dashed as we struggled to even launch ourselves from the start holds to the next on the wall — it really is quite a way further than you realise to reach.

Climbing coach Callum Irons was on hand to show us how it’s done, however, and his quickest speed on the wall is hugely impressive at just nine seconds.

His demonstration was also a quick 14.72 second scurry up the wall.

After seeing Callum scale the wall with vigour, we tried something a bit smaller — and suitable for speed climbing novices like ourselves — on the timed wall in the Clip ‘n Climb zone.

Here I managed what I felt was an acceptable 18.09 seconds, and Fionn reached the top in solid 56.80 seconds, following what he called a “slow and steady wins the race” tactic.

We also had a go at the race wall, another of many fun looking walls in the centre, where two climbers go head-to-head on opposite sides of a clear wall to reach the top first. We each tried both sides of this wall, and I claimed the victory both times, to my delight.

The Clip ‘n Climb centre is open to ages four and above, with after-school sessions, and is also an ideal introduction to the main climbing centre where there is also bouldering, and rope and lead climbing walls up to 15 metres high.

The YMCA is hosting taster sessions on all throughout summer for those inspired to give climbing a go to learn the ropes.

Among the attendees to one of these sessions was Felix Softley-Robins, with dad Jon Robins, who was rocketing up the large walls well above our heads despite it being his first time.

Jon said: “For me as a parent its been fantastic, he’s absolutely loved the Clip ‘n Climb, we’ve come twice to that and then we saw the taster sessions and thought fantastic, it’s the next stage up.

“For me watching him enjoying it has been fantastic, it’s great value and great to come down for an hour.”

Felix added: “It’s amazing, I especially like swinging (as he is belayed down from the large overhanging wall) and I went over people’s heads.”

While we were in the centre we also tried both top-rope climbing, and bouldering — which involves climbing short but challenging walls without ropes, and is also an Olympic sport combined with lead climbing.

Up first was bouldering where we started by getting to grips with falling safely, as coach Callum explained there was a lot of falling involved in the sport.

Then we tried our hand at a few of the easier routes, which follow a difficulty scale based on colour, including a challenging purple climb around an overhang on the wall.

Next was top-rope climbing where we started on smaller walls before attempting to scale the 15 metre climbs — which feel a lot higher when you’re up there.

Overall, climbing was incredibly enjoyable, a challenge both mentally and physically, and used muscles we didn’t even know we had in what was surely a very effective full-body workout.

The facilities are also used for training by GB Climbing speed climber Matthew Fell.

Matthew said: "YMCA Newark and Sherwood is the only wall in the East Midlands to boast facilities for all three olympic disciplines, including an Olympic Standard 15metre Speed Wall.

“As a speed climber for GB Climbing, I am grateful for not only the YMCA facilities, but for the encouragement and friendliness of the climbing staff. The speed wall is well-maintained and looked after, and it is clear that the YMCA is proud of their speed climbing community; it really is a good place to train.

“I hope people up and down the country have been inspired by the speed climbing event in the Olympics (and with so many tight races and world records, it's hard not to be inspired) and YMCA Newark and Sherwood is a great place to get started. I am wholly convinced that GB's first Olympic Speed Climber might not have even discovered the sport yet — it could be someone reading this — and I look forward to seeing new names appear on the YMCA leaderboard.”

If the Olympics have inspired you to try sport climbing, there’s plenty of ways to get into it and give it a go, with the YMCA’s climbing centre open for all ages for a variety of open sessions, NICAS levels for young people, over 55’s Legends sessions, lead climbing and more.