Local climbers reach new heights

Athletes from Gauteng Climbing, which includes several local climbers from Pretoria, recently competed in Cape Town at National Championship and came home with a whole lot of medals for the province.

May 11, 2022

Koos Venter 1 minute read

Edward Harvey showing his strength and endurance on one of the testing qualifier routes at the National Championship. Edward climbs at the Barn in Pretoria when he is not crushing routes at competitions. Photo: Peter Samuelson

Although climbing is not very well known to the general public, it is a very popular and growing sport, attracting more and more participants worldwide.

The 2022 SANCF Climbing National Championship was recently presented in Cape Town. This was not just another climbing competition. It also served as trials during which a limited number of athletes across all participating provinces (Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga), were selected to represent South Africa at the 2022 Youth World Climbing Championships in the USA later this year.

Athletes from Gauteng Climbing, which includes several local climbers from Pretoria, recently competed in Cape Town at National Championship and came home with a whole lot of medals for the province.

Abigail Strange from Team Gauteng showing everyone how it’s done on a very tricky lead route. Abigail bagged a first place gold medal in the open female category at the National Climbing Championship in the boulder category to go with her second place silver medal in the lead category. Photo: Peter Samuelson

Centurion’s Caitlan Bouwer, who climbs at Rock Valley, in a pensive mood about to complete a tough lead route at the Provincial selections event. Caitlan secured a second place finish and silver medal in the speed event in her age category at National Championship. Photo: Elli Wahl

Georgia Ehlers making light work of a boulder problem at Provincial selections held in February. Georgia, who climbs at the Barn in Pretoria, bagged a third place bronze medal in the lead discipline in the u.17 female category at the National Champs. Photo: Elli Wahl

Tiffany Bouwer from Centurion, not to be outdone by her elder sister, tops a tough qualifying boulder route at Gauteng Provincial Championship, earning her a spot in the Gauteng team. Tiffany bagged a second place silver medal in the lead discipline at the National Championship in the u.13 category event which pitted the countries top climbers against each other. Photo: Elli Wahl

After the event, Ziyad Adroos, President of Gauteng Climbing said the standard of climbing was intense but pitched where it needed to be.

“We are immensely proud of our athletes and what they have achieved, notwithstanding the impact that Covid has had on the sport. While it was great to compete in the Mother City, we look forward to hosting the competition next year on home turf,” Adroos remarked.

Indoor sports climbing has really taken off since the sport made its debut at the Tokyo Olympics last year. People from Pretoria who would be interested in participating in this sport are lucky enough to have two climbing gyms in the city. There is a facility at The Barn in the East of Pretoria, as well as the Rock Valley Climbing gym in Centurion.

Various competitions will be presented at one of these two facilities throughout the year.

Any inquiries about this growing and popular sport in Gauteng can be directed to Bridgette Erdey at email address erdeyfam@gmail.com .

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May 11, 2022

Koos Venter 1 minute read

Local climbers reach new heights

Athletes from Gauteng Climbing, which includes several local climbers from Pretoria, recently competed in Cape Town at National Championship and came home with a whole lot of medals for the province.

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Koos Venter

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