Jamie Geraghty Qualifies for the WSWCF World Cup Super Final
On Saturday August 17th our Head Coach and creator of Bar Monkey Jamie Geraghty became the first Irish Person to qualify for the WSWCF World Cup Super Final.
This takes place in Hong Kong on November 23rd and Jamie qualified by taking third place at the Royalbarzz World Cup Stage in Veldhoven, Holland. Jamie taking a place on the podium represents a huge moment for the sport in this country, helping our club and also the calisthenics community across Ireland gain International recognition.
The structure of the competition saw 20 athletes competing from across Europe hoping to earn a spot on the podium and represent their country in the Super Final.
First Round
The first round of the event saw all twenty athletes being given three minutes to perform as best as they could. Judges were then given the responsibility of judging Statics, Dynamics and Combinations. The best ten would then make it through to the second round.
Jamie performed a huge amount of static holds in the three minutes allocated to him. Each athlete showcased their own individual styles, and in the end like any sport it was down to who held their nerve and made as little mistakes as possible. There was tension throughout everyone’s routine but in the end Jamie was able to qualify to the second round, while ten athletes were finished and their hopes of qualifying were dashed.
Jamie’s three minutes saw him perform a 19 move combination on the high bar in his first routine, followed by a static set on the parallel bars and a planche routine on the floor. This would be the start of what would follow as Jamie relied on his statics throughout the competition. In the end he performed well enough to qualify for the second round.
Second Round
The second round was a 1v1 Battle format. Each athlete was given two rounds and each round lasted one minute thirty seconds.
Jamie was drawn against Rico Mesa, a name a lot of people in Ireland will be familiar with as Rico has been in Ireland before as a judge at competitions in the Irish Calisthenics Academy.
Rico had only been given four days notice that he was in the competition so he didn’t have a huge amount of time to prepare for this, but he is a phenomenal athlete and pushed Jamie all the way. Rico is very much an athlete that excites a crowd and is a difficult opponent because he is very unpredictable, you never know what crazy move he might throw out on the day!
There is huge respect for Rico in the calisthenics community and the Irish one in particular, so it was a nice battle between him and Jamie and both showed each other respect and admiration throughout.
One minute and thirty seconds for two rounds is a really difficult test of endurance, particularly for calisthenics and so both Jamie and Rico had to perform as strongly as they could, and in the end the victory went to Jamie. Looking back we think this was mainly due to his strength in static holds and planche in particular.
Jamie had made it to the final five.
Final
The final consisted of the five winners from the 1v1 battles. This was structured so that each athlete performed one minute rounds three times.
At this stage it comes down to endurance and mental fatigue. Throughout the competition a lot of it came down to who held their nerves the best. In warm ups people were throwing crazy moves and then when it came to the actual competition they were missing basic 360s. So by the time the final came around for the final five athletes it got to a stage were they were really conscious of not failing anything.
At this stage, and looking back on performance analysis by our coach Aaron Fitzpatrick, Jamie really relied on his static strength. By the final round he was still able to perform full planche nine times overall, and his statics remained at a really high level. However, it was his dynamics that began to slow down. This just indicates to us something we need to work on for the next competition. Other athletes go the other way, statics die down and dynamics take over. When it gets to this stage it just highlights where an athletes strengths are, or where they consider their strengths to be, because it is such a mental game at this point.
This is when judges begin to have a seriously tough decision, because they know for these final five how much it means to get to that place on the podium for each athlete.
Again Jamie performed consistently throughout with his static holds, again in particular with planche - this was held nine times overall in these final three rounds. This was the move that helped him stand out and earn a place on the podium.
When the decision was made and there was a tie announced for fourth and fifth, there was that moment of elation and realisation of what had just happened. Jamie had placed in the top three. We were going to the World Cup. We had to remain calm until the names were actually called and then it was just pure elation.
An amazing achievement for us as a club, and for everyone involved in the calisthenics community all across Ireland. This represents the most exciting period for Calisthenics in Ireland and we can’t wait to continue to see the development of the sport across the country and where this journey takes us.
Next Stop Hong Kong!
Highlight Video below edited by the excellent Rutger Franke:
For anyone interested in partnership with us and becoming involved in our sport at the most exciting stage of it’s development we have sponsorship packages available in the build up to the World Cup Final in Hong Kong. We have different packages tailored towards business and fitness facilities. Please check the link below or for other collaboration projects please email us: info@barmonkeycalisthenics.com