2023 La Sportiva National Lead & Para Climbing Championships

The Geckos put on a great show at the 2023 National Champs, both as athletes and as the host club!

Thanks to all the many volunteers who came together to make it happen, including all on the committee, the belayers, the route-setters, the bake sale stall volunteers, the judges, the photographers, the supporters, all the climbers & other cat-herders! We couldn’t have done it without you all.

We’d particularly like to thank the YMCA Adventure Centre and their staff for supporting our hosting of this competition – it is a big upheaval for them, and their staff went above and beyond in their support of the comp.

We’d also like to thank our sponsors for this weekend, Christchurch City Council & the Aotea Gaming Trust.

It would have been a big ask this weekend to try and gain the large number of points required to wrest the CNZ Clubs Trophy back from BOPSCA this year (due to their overwhelming advantage in the speed discipline), but we were stoked to hear at the final prize-giving that the Geckos were top club this year in both lead-climbing & bouldering!

AthleteCategoryPlacing
Anna EvansYouth D FemaleSilver
Tobin PriestleyYouth D MaleSilver
Charlotte ChinnYouth C FemaleBronze
Manaia JohnstonYouth C Female4th
Robert RiderYouth B MaleSilver*
Cooper GibsonYouth B Male8th
Alex EvansYouth B Male10th
Harvey SandersonYouth B Male11th
Katie ChinnYouth B Female4th
Xanthe SaundersYouth B Female6th
Amber GrossmithYouth B Female7th
Hanna NorthYouth B Female8th
Zoe BallYouth B Female12th
Spencer MenziesYouth A Male
Open Male
4th
6th
Grayson MeaclemYouth A Male
Open Male
7th
22nd
Ollie ChinnYouth A Male
Open Male
10th
21st
Jack CameronYouth A Male20th
Sophia CookYouth A Female
Open Female
Silver
6th
Laura TownshendYouth A Female
Open Female
4th
5th
Ngaire NorthJunior FemaleBronze
Nicky DachsOpen Female7th
Jake TownshendOpen MaleBronze
Sefton PriestleyOpen Male8th
Scott FergusonOpen Male12th
Joseph BatesOpen Male13th
*Top-placed NZ Athlete
Special mention to Christchurch’s own Enzo Murray taking Gold in Open Male even though not representing the Geckos

A selection of photos of various Geckos in action are below.
Photographers are Murray Goldsmith, Nicola Chinn & Conor Boyd.
Conor’s full album of photos from the weekend are available here.

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