National Indoor Bouldering Series Round One

By Mick Domaneschi

Round One of NiBS 2021 was hosted this year by Hangdog in Wellington. A shipment of new holds arrived just in time for almost 200 competitors to test themselves against the excellent route setting of George Sanders and Frank Foster. At the end of the day, five women and five men had done enough to qualify for the finals. Both fields were a broad mix of youngsters and veterans with Bella Domaneschi (U18) and Rochelle Andrews (Masters), Oskar Wolff (U18) and Sefton Priestly (Masters) showing the way. Becca Hounsell (U16) also scored enough to make finals, but was not eligible due to age.

A capacity crowd filed in to witness the finals, and they weren't disappointed. The setters provided an excellent mix of slab, coordination and crimp problems to entertain the crowd and put the athletes through their paces.

There were very few tops in the Men's with Blocs 1 and 2 defeating everyone, but many came very close. In the Women's, the field was more evenly spread across Blocs 1 and 3, though Bloc 2, a coordination problem, stopped everyone even getting to the first catch after the start holds. This, though, did not stop the athletes making spectacular, crowd pleasing attempts.

In the end, Oskar Wolff's quick, assertive solution to Bloc 3 and Erica Gatland's consistency shone through to take the wins in the Open categories.

The National Indoor Bouldering Series is hosted by the New Zealand Alpine Club and sponsored by The North Face, Uprising, Bivouac, and La Sportiva—check them out.

Results

Open Female

1st Erica Gatland – 100 points

2nd Amanda Speed – 86 points

3rd Miriam Bright – 74 points

Open Male

1st Oskar Wolff – 100 Points

2nd Tom Waldin – 86 points

3rd Sefton Priestley – 74 Points

Veterans Female

1st Edit Mcintosh – 100 points

2nd Andrea Mcdonald – 86 points

3rd Eve Vernik – 74 points

Veteran Male

1st Zane Bray – 100 points

2nd Jeremy Tries – 86 points

3rd Aaron Young – 74 points

Masters Female

1st Rochelle Andrews – 100 points

2nd Kelly Marie – 86 points

3rd Philippa Yasbek – 74 points

Masters Male

1st Sefton Priestley – 100 points

2nd Toby Irrcher – 86 points

3rd Peter Lofthouse – 74 points

U18 Female

1st Bella Domaneschi – 100 points

2nd Abby Gebert – 86 points

3rd Emma De Lange – 74 points

U18 Male

1st Oskar Wolff – 100 points

2nd Henry Booker – 86 points

3rd Fin Newton-Howes – 74 points

U16 Female

1st Rebecca Hounsell – 100 points

2nd Meredith Butcher – 86 points

3rd= Mischa Boorman – 69 points

3rd= Harriette Butcher – 69 points

U16 Male

1st Nat Warburton- 100 points

2nd Mac Duggan – 86 points

3rd Fynn Marno-Simpson – 74 points

U14 Female

1st Jasmine Arnold-Clark- 100 points

2nd Sylvie Malcolm-Tait – 86 points

3rd Charline Costa – 74 points

U14 Male

1st Steven Lam-Tran- 100 points

2nd Jamie Birchler – 86 points

3rd Wilfred Browne – 74 points

U12 Female

1st Michaela King- 100 points

2nd Paige Lewis – 86 points

3rd Eleanor Whitmore – 74 points

U12 Male

1st Fletcher Mcgrath- 100 points

2nd Tobin Priestley – 86 points

3rd Isaac Bunce – 74 points