Molly Thompson-Smith and Will Bosi take on the final chance for Olympic Qualification

Will and Molly are going to battle it out in the individual disciplines of Boulder, Lead and Speed, before representing Great Britain in the Combined event.

In the Combined event, athletes compete across Speed, Boulder and Lead. This will be their final chance to qualify for the last two places at the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, which will now take place in 2021.

Preparing the athletes for this competition, which takes place 19-28  November, has been an unprecedented process due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. With lockdown climbing wall closures, GB Climbing athletes were not able to regularly train together and prepare as they would normally.

However, thanks to UK Sport’s Aspiration Fund Programme, GB Climbing were able to collaborate with Sheffield-based climbing walls The Climbing Works and Awesome Walls. These became defined performance facilities, under elite athlete guidance from DCMS. These walls facilitated GB Climbing athletes in returning to training in a COVID-19 safe environment and provided Molly and Will with the facilities they needed to prepare for the Championship.

Zoe Spriggins, GB Climbing competition programme manager, said:

“GB climbing is attending Moscow 2020 because it is Will and Molly’s final chance to qualify for the Olympic Games. The IFSC have confirmed that the event is going to go ahead and GB Climbing is fully supporting them in achieving their aspirations and dreams of gaining Olympic qualification.”

Tom Greenall, GB Climbing head coach, said:

“In Molly Thompson Smith and Will Bosi, we have a great chance of qualification. We want to go to Moscow because we want to give them the opportunity to fight for those places. We’ve put together a program around our two athletes to ensure that they’ve been able to go from a position of no training at the peak of the pandemic to being fully competition ready in five weeks.

“The measures we have put in place to manage COVID-19 go from the very complicated to doing the basics brilliantly. It’s about sanitising, making sure we wear masks at all times and ensuring social distancing. We have a very robust risk assessment for the Moscow event and plans of how we’re going to manage ourselves in the travel, in the competition, and any transit in between. We are going to make sure, at all times, that our team is safe. We take it very seriously and, back in the UK, our medical team is always on hand to give the team any support needed.”

Will Bosi, GB Climbing athlete, said:

“GB Climbing has been crucial in helping me prepare for this event. They’ve organised the GB Climbing Team training in the run-up, giving me lots of one-to-one sessions with my coach, allowing me to specialise on boulder sessions. It’s made a big difference to my training, and hopefully this will show in Moscow.”

Molly Thompson-Smith, GB Climbing athlete, said:

“This year is the most supported I’ve felt in the last few years of doing competitions. GB Climbing has taken all the stress of organisation away but, more importantly, has been able to set up a dedicated training space for us in Unit E at The Climbing Works in Sheffield.”

HOW TO SUPPORT: follow GB Climbing, Will and Molly

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Molly is sponsored by Gymshark, Petzl, Scarpa and Phd Nutrition. 

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Will is sponsored by Adidas Terrex, DMM, Frictionlabs, Entreprise, Hard Bar, Lattice Training and Beta Climbing.