It's been a while . . .

. . . since i last posted something on my blog.

In fact it was just before i was due to visit China for the World Champs. (See next post for some photos)

But it all went a bit wrong - i was meant to do the competition and then head to Yangshuo for some sport-climbing but the night before the Lead discipline qualification i received a phone call from England to say that my father had a severe heart-attack.

I flew home, missing the qualification round and not being able to put the 9 months of specific training to practice. Obviously my father's health and getting back to see him was my priority - climbing ranked very far behind that. And i spent the next 3 weeks looking after my Dad getting him out of hospital and back to normal home life - this was also right at the time of the British Championships too.

The whole incident had a massive impact on me, my training and my motivation. I didn't get the top 25 World Ranking i had been aiming and training for a year, i didn't get 1st at the British Championships (i got 3rd) and it took a while for me to get back training like i was.

Anyway, things have picked up again and i am training and climbing really, really well - (more to come in next post!)

I also have 3 World Cups to focus on:

- Puurs (25th/26th September)
- Brno (6th & 7th November)
- Kranj (14th & 15th November)

So here's to climbing in the remaining 4 months of 2009 and many more blog posts!