Hamish Mcarthur - Another breakthrough 2022?

Hamish Mcarthur finished the 2021 competition season by first getting two golds in the Youth World Championship and then being #3 and #7, in Boulder and Lead, in the World Championship. Outdoors he has done two 8c+/9a (in just two sessions each) and last year he put in five sessions on La Dura Dura 9b+, in the picture from his Insta.

What is your climbing background?
I started as most kids do; climbing trees, buildings, playground equipment, my parents... To this day nothing brings me as much joy as going adventuring in the vertical plane. I can't step outside without my mind racing at the possibilities of what I can scale. As a result, my parents took me to a gym when I was 5 to redirect my energy. I got hooked quickly. I crave challenge (in any form) and climbing is the perfect symbol of just this.

How can you explain the great progress in 2021?
An amalgamation of many factors so it's hard to unpick the effect to find a single cause. A big factor however was my isolation during the lockdown. For a good few months, my training was exclusively on an 8ft² wooden board in my parents' shed. In this period (with no comps on the horizon) I was forced to change my approach to training from doing it to improve my climbing to doing it to improve my life. This minor shift in perspective has allowed performing so much more freely as suddenly nothing is on the line quite like before. I'm just doing it through love and passion rather than fear.

What is your plan and ambition in 2022?
Simply put, I want to dominate the competition scene then fly to Spain and send la Dura Dura... I know this is incredibly ambitious, but that is how you push the limits. If you don't aim for it there is no chance at all you will do it.