The newly opened Adventure Centre at Ratho, Edinburgh, (MCofS's National Rock Climbing Centre), saw some great climbing action early in December when it hosted its first international event, the 14th and final round of the 2003 UIAA/ICC World Cup climbing competition.

The event, which was supported by the MCofS and the BMC featured the finals in two competition disciplines, difficulty and bouldering.

The event attracted large crowds on the finals weekend, and was recorded by the BBC. Coverage is scheduleded to be broadcast on BBC1 (Scotland) on Monday 15th December at 1135pm.

In the difficulty class, Sandrine Levet of France took a spectacular win, achieving the only top-out of the womens final and confirming runners up spot in the overall rankings. Muriel Sarkany of Belgium, who had already clinched the championship, had to settle for 4th on the day.

In the men's competition no one managed to complete the final course, but Spain's Patxi Usobiaga made it furthest across a difficult traverse high on the wall to clinch his first win. 4th place for Alexandre Chabot of France was enough to clinch the championship.

The bouldering competition began with the first round in Birmingham in March. In the ladies event, Sandrine Levet of France completed a fine weekend double, winning the event and completing her 2nd world championship ahead of Olga Bibik of Russia.
Among the men, 2001 champion Jérôme Meyer of France saw off Salavat Rakhmetov of Russia, both maintaining their overall rankings. Scotland's Malcolm Smith showed well, qualifying first from the heats, but he could not sustain that form in the final.

Full results from the earlier rounds of the competitions, championship standings and competitor profiles are available on the official championship website at www.icc-info.org

International Council for Competition Climbing