Natalie Berry competed in her first International climbing competition in May 2005 when she flew out to Austria with two other British Team Members for a round of the European Youth Cup (EYC) held at "The Kletterhalle" (http://www.kletterhalle.com) in Imst, Austria.

Natalie was competing in the "difficulty" or "lead" competition, in the Youth B category.

International Youth competitions are held by age and sex categories: Youth B - this year this age category was for athletes born in 1990 and 1991 Youth A - this year this age category was for athletes born in 1988 and 1989 Junior - this year this age category was for athletes born in 1986 and 1987 (Each year the categories all move up one year).

As Natalie was born in December 1991 she was only just old enough to compete and was therefore one of the youngest (actually the second youngest) in her category.

Read Natalie's own story of her Austria Trip here.

The comp consisted of two "flash" qualification climbs for each sex/age category (these routes were demonstrated and they could watch the climbers before them attempt the climbs). Natalie topped out on qualifier 1, and came very close to topping out on qualifier 2.

The top ten from each sex/age category, based on the scores from the combined qualification climbs, went on to an onsight final (the routes were not demonstrated but they had six minutes viewing time of the route as a group and were then put into "isolation" until it was their time to climb - they had no idea how anyone else had done until they had all finished the final route).

She qualified for the onsight final in 6th place and after the final climb was placed 4th overall in her category - just missing out on a podium position, but being the highest placed 1991 competitor and beating all the Austrian girls at one of their own competition walls. (Natalie has never climbed there before).

The EYC Championship is awarded to the competitor achieving the highest number of points (points are awarded for each competitors placement in the rounds they enter) at the end of the series of competitions in each sex/age category (usually 4 or 5 comps are held around Europe each year - Imst was round 2 this year).

Natalie is only entering one round of the EYC this year because she is still very young. However, she is going to the World Youth Championships in Beijing in August 2005. This is the competition which was successfully held in Scotland last year.

The British Team are still looking for sponsors to help support the Team in competitions.

The results and a video of Nat's climbs in the comp are available through the news page of her website www.nattybclimbing.com. If you view the video you will see that the walls were amazing with huge steep and overhanging sections! Nat said it was the best wall she had ever climbed on, and with 34 entrants from about a dozen European countries in Nat's category - she now has lots of new friends!

• Results from all European competitions: www.icc-info.org
• You can follow progress of the World Youth Championships at http://www.uiaaclimbing.com/