Successful first year of international climbing over for Mansfield’s Sam Hammond

“I’ve had a really good season, with a lot of competitions, some good results and I’m really happy with going into semi-finals in second place in my first year of competing internationally in bouldering,” said the 17-year-old, who studies at Mansfield's Joseph Whitaker School.

The first day saw the bouldering qualifiers and 71 category A male athletes took to the stage to attempt to top six blocs.

Sam topped five of the blocs and achieved the zone on all six.

Such a strong performance put him in second place and comfortably through to the semi-finals the next day.

The semi-finals consisted of four blocs and the athletes came out of isolation in reverse order.

Sam came out 22nd, but unfortunately the pressure affected his climbing and he missed out on finals, finishing in 19th place.

Next followed the lead round, qualifiers consisted of two climbs.

Sam was happy with his second climb but felt that he could have done better on his first climb.

He finished qualifiers in 10th place, safely securing himself a spot in the semi-finals.

Those saw a single climb and it was a close field, but Sam climbed well and successfully increased his position by two, therefore getting into the finals in eighth position.

The finals again operated in reverse order and so Sam came out to climb first.

He climbed well, but fumbled a hold, which meant that he finished the competition in eighth place.

‘I was really disappointed with my results in Troyes,” he said.

“I knew that I could have climbed better, but I was fatigued from the long session I had.

“But, after a few days back at home though, I’ve had the time to reflect and take the positives.”

After a long 2024 season where Sam competed in both youth and senior international competitions, he has achieved an overall youth ranking in Europe of seventh in boulder, fourth in lead and second overall in the combined score for lead and boulder.

Last month Hammond impressed as he finished 11th in his category as the world's best young climbers from 49 nations gathered at the annual Youth World Championships in Guiyang, China.

Earlier this year, Sam finished an impressive seventh out of 80 competitors at the first European Youth Boulder Cup in Curno, Italy, and then fourth in Graz, Austria.

He also won the Junior British Lead Championship in 2022.

The season commences again at the beginning of February with GB trials, so the close season will consist of a two-week rest and then back into training.