Month: May 2019

Victoria is home to some ‘Speedy Climbers.’  Both Oceana Mackenzie and Ned Middlehurst have set some recent Australian records with their speed times in IFSC international competitions.  Where do they go to get so speedy?

Lead and speed gym Gravity Worx has Victoria’s only speed wall, which serves as a key feature for our Victorian speed athletes who compete nationally and internationally.  While there is usually only one speed wall up for training purposes (with IFSC sanctioned holds), for the second year, Gravity Worx hosted the Victorian State Speed Titles on Saturday 11 May, 2019.  Rock Hardware sponsored the event providing some excellent prizes for competitors.

For full results, click here.

The Gravity Worx speed wall is the only wall in Australia equivalent to the angle and height of an internationally certified speed wall, and is a hub for state and national speed training. Gravity Worx hosts Team Aus training camps, open training camps, and camps specifically for local youth athletes.  Recently, Gravity Worx donated half of the funds raised at a recent youth speed training back to Sport Climbing Victoria so that we can continue to offer training camps to our youth and open members.

– Karen Powell, SCV Board Member

Over a massive three days, youth climbers across Australia flocked to NSW to compete in the Youth National Championships from the 24 – 26 May, 2019. Victoria sent a large team to compete at the elite level with all categories represented.

All three disciplines were showcased including Lead, Speed and Boulder and a combined result calculated for those who competed in all three disciplines.

Congratulations to all the Victorian competitors who made the podium:

Combined

• Ned Middlehurst, 1st, Junior Male
• Matthew Austin, 3rd, Youth A Male
• Maya Stasiuk, 1st, Youth C Female
• Zoe Puglisi, 3rd, Youth C Female

Boulder

• Ned Middlehurst, 1st, Junior Male
• Maya Stasiuk, 1st, Youth C Female

Lead

• Ned Middlehurst, 3rd, Junior Male
• Maya Stasiuk, 1st, Youth C Female
• Jaime Wong, 3rd, Youth D Female

Speed

• Ned Middlehurst, 1st, Junior Male
• Alana Frankland, 2nd, Junior Female
• Oliver Burch, 2nd, Youth A Male
• Matthew Austin, 3rd, Youth A Male
• Sora Asahara, 1st, Youth C Male
• Zoe Puglisi, 1st, Youth C Female

We would also like to say a massive thank you to our Coach Sarah McKenzie and Assistant Coach Deryl Ng for making the trip up to NSW and coaching our youth competitors, to Ned Middlehurst as Team Captain and to all the volunteers that helped out!

Congratulations to all those athletes who competed over the weekend!

For full Boulder results, click here.

For full Lead results, click here.

For full Speed results, click here.

For full Combined results, click here.

Photos by Jason Wong

Paraclimbing has been seen at numerous state and national climbing competitions in Australia for a number of years now, but in 2019, Sport Climbing Australia selected a Paraclimbing team for international competition for the first time. Three athletes are heading to Briançon, France to represent Australia at the IFSC World Paraclimbing Championships in July: Eddie Sparks, Marc Altmann and myself.

On the 18-19 May, I competed at the Climbing New Zealand National Championships in Auckland. The format was two qualification rounds and an onsight final, all climbed on top rope. With only four paraclimbers competing, I was guaranteed to have three routes to climb. The other competitors in the category consisted of a marathon running ice climber, a Paralympian and a climber that finished one spot off the podium at last year’s Paraclimbing World Championships in Innsbruck.

After viewing the forerunning videos, I went through my warm up which seemed to add to my nervousness. I was climbing second on the first qualification route and watched the first climber top. As I tied in and pulled onto the wall, I began to feel a little more at ease with each move. I climbed the bottom section easily but fell off a small crimp a few holds from the top. Although a little disappointed, my climbing felt controlled and efficient.

Qualification 2 saw me climb last and I watched 2 of the 3 climbers before me top the route. This route consisted of a difficult traverse across a steep wall and then up into a hard sequence as the wall angle tapered off for the last few moves to the top. I again climbed reasonably well until I lost my feet as I tried to move into the final section. I fought hard to regain an effective position but was unable to recover and fell.

The final looked to be a few grades harder and finished on what seemed from the ground to be a very thin horizontal edge. It was going to be a very difficult finish for anyone who managed to get there. Second out, I fell a dozen moves in as I threw my left hand up trying to latch a small jug. I didn’t hit the hold cleanly and slipped off. My finish was a long way from the eventual high point and the final route remained un-topped. But, with two climbers getting within a couple of holds from the top, I think the setters got it right with the final they set.

Overall, I had a really great time and am looking forward to my next two competitions, the Imst (Austria) Paraclimbing Masters and the Paraclimbing World Championships in Briançon during July. I’d like to sincerely thank Sport Climbing Victoria, Sport Climbing Australia and Climbing New Zealand for their support of adaptive sports and paraclimbing.

 

– Russell Harrison, Australian Paraclimbing Team Member

Thank you to all those climbers who climbed or purchased outdoor gear from participating outlets on Wednesday 8 May, 2019.

$10,669.36 was raised for CliffCare Victoria to help with access issues within the Grampians.

Victorian athletes have been busy in April and May heading to China and Germany to represent Australia on the world cup stage.

First stop for our athletes was Chongqing, China held from 26 – 28 April, 2019.  We had athletes competing in both Boulder and Speed disciplines.  In Speed, Victorians demonstrated their hard work setting Australian Speed records.  Ned Middlehurst has set the official men’s time at 8.83 seconds and Oceana Mackenzie set the womens with a time of 9.642 seconds.

In Boulder we had Ned Middlehurst, Campbell Harrison and Oceana Mackenzie representing Victoria coming 69th, 86th and 45th respectively competing in harsh whether conditions.

For full results, click here.

Next stop was Wujiang, China held from 3 – 5 May, 2019 where Mackenzie beat her own Chongqing speed record to reset the record at 9.589 seconds. In an ever growing team, we also had Grace Crowley attend her very first Speed competition finishing with a time of 14.878. Finally in speed, Middlehurst finished with a time of 9.289 which wasn’t enough to beat his previous record.

In Boulder, Victoria was represented by Harrison and Middlehurst who tied in 67th and Mackenzie who finished in 33rd.

For full results, click here.

The last stop for our Victorian athletes was Munich, Germany from 18 – 19 May, 2019.  We had one athlete, Mackenzie, make the trip to Europe with boulder the only discipline. Mackenzie continued her stellar performance for 2019 making it into Semi’s for her second time this year.  Mackenzie finished in 17th after a tough semi final round that saw only 5 tops total – four were from the extremely talented Janja Garnbret and the only other athlete to get a top was Ievgniia Kazbekova on women’s problem two.

For full results, click here.

Congratulations to all our Victorian athletes! Making the transition to the international stage is an amazing achievement! While there is one more boulder world cup to be held in Vail, USA, the Victorian athletes are now turning their attention to the 2019 lead season starting in July.

 

On Tuesday 1 May, Sport Climbing Victoria’s (SCV) President Phil Goebel put pen to paper to publish our views on the current Grampians Access issues being discussed within the climbing community and a potential way forward.

To view the full article, click here.

While there are many opinions on how it should be done, it is abundantly clear that climbers believe there should be a unified community to help bolster our voice in this issue and future issues that may be presented to us.

Regardless of if you are an indoor climber, an outdoor climber, boulderer or lead climber, we are one community and now is the time to band together.