Climbing New Zealand held the 2021 Open Bouldering National Championships at Christchurch's Uprising gym on Saturday 11th December. This was the first time this competition has been held outside of the North Island for several years and it was great to see a really strong field of competitors from all around the country enter.

Leading up to the Olympics in Tokyo there were the expected malcontent murmurings from purist climbers about how competition climbing is a sham and bears little resemblance to actual rock climbing. What has become clear since Tokyo is that many of the 'plastic specialists' are more than useful on the rock too, when time and training schedules allow.