New Zealand Lead Climbing National Championships
By John Palmer
All photos by Brendan McGrath
On Saturday 7 March 2026, the Climbing New Zealand Lead National Championship 2025/2026 was held at The Wall in Rotoura. It was the last national event for the 2025/2026 competition climbing season.
The event comprised female and male categories for Open, Under 19, Under 17 and Para climbers and featured over 50 athletes from New Zealand and Australia.
Head route setters Henry Booker and Jake Townshend, ably supported by Marcus Albisu and Sylvie Rogers, put in a big shift in the days leading up to the competition to set exciting qualifier and finals routes that tested the skills and strengths of the athletes. Their efforts were rewarded, as climbers across categories rose to the challenge and put on show for the crowd – especially in finals.
The open finals were dominated by Katie and Oliver Chinn (two of three Chinn siblings competing at the event). In the male category, Australian Kyle Heuston-Connor took second (having topped both qualification routes) and Bay of Plenty’s Eliezar Cachatoor-Faber took third. For the New Zealand only open male podium, Eliezar moved up to second and Taranaki crusher Conrad Bolger took third. Katie’s training buddy from the Flying Geckos Club, Xanthe Saunders, took second in the female category, with Auckland’s Grace Hansen coming third.
In the Under 19s, the female podium was identical (Katie, Xanthe and Grace). The male podium, Eliezar Cachatoor-Faber was well out ahead in first, Wellington Dynomite Club member Lucas Machado Gomes squeezed and pulled his way to second, with Conrad Bolger coming in third.
In the Under 17s, Hutt Valley’s finest Fletcher McGrath continued his dominance of the category by defending his title (he also won the national U17M boulder title) and claiming the only top of the finals. Another Dynomite, Quinn Boetzelen-McIntyre, climbed smoothly into second and Xavier Wasek-Webb beat out his Auckland teammate by one hold for third place. In the female category, Dynomite Sylvia Palmer crushed many pinches for first place, Charlotte Chinn (yes, the third Chinn sibling) put in a strong showing for second place, and Sylvia’s fellow Dynomite and training buddy Holly Meyer took third.
In Para, the Waikato Climbing Club’s Eltje Malzbender won the female category and Kaleb Westlake also from Waikato won the male category and very nearly got the second top of the finals.
The event would not have been possible without a strong team of Climbing New Zealand and Rotorua Climbing Club volunteers, along with sponsorship from Rab NZ and Black Diamond NZ.
Full results are available on Climbalong.