Wellington Climber qualifies for Youth Olympic Games
Sarah Tetzlaff from Wellington is the first ever New Zealand climber to qualify for the Youth Olympic Games. She secured
her qualification by placing first in the Combined under 18 climbing competition at the Oceania Climbing Championships
in Noumea, New Caledonia at the weekend. She saw off competition from Australian and New Caledonian climbers to place
first in speed climbing, second in lead climbing and fifth in bouldering giving her the overall highest placing in the
combined disciplines.
The Youth Olympics will be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2018. Climbing will feature for the first time in the full
Olympics in Tokyo in 2020.
The New Zealand team took home a haul of seven gold medals, two silver and seven bronze medals – the country’s best
result in an Oceania competition in 20 years. Other gold medals in individual disciplines went to Lucy Whitehead (age
18) from National Park for under 20 speed climbing and bouldering, Oliver Soar (age 18) from Hamilton for under 20
bouldering and George Sanders (age 20) from Wellington for open male lead climbing. Tetzlaff also took the gold medals
in the individual disciplines of speed and bouldering for under 18s, giving her a total of three gold medals.
The three disciplines of competitive sport climbing are: lead climbing where climbers aim to get to the top of an
increasingly difficult high route using a rope for safety; bouldering where climbers tackle low level technical problems
without ropes; and speed climbing where the climbers race each other on a set 15 metre high route.
ENDS
For more information contact: David Sanders, President, Climbing New Zealand -