150 to vie for slot in national sport climbing team

Some 150 avid climbers are set to join the second circuit leg of the National Sport Climbing Competition to be held from June 29 to July 1 at the Power Up Silver City Mall in Pasig City. In a press conference on June 15, the Sport Climbing Association of the Philippines (SCAPI) said the competition is aimed at picking out among the winners those who will be part of the national sport climbing team. To qualify for national ranking, sport climbers must joine in two of three regional legs and the championship round. They get points based on performance and the top five scorers get slots in the national team. The coming national competition will have three categories: Juniors, Open Men, and Open Women. And each category includes two formats — the Speed Event and the Difficulty Event. It will be the first time that the Speed Event is included in the yearly competition, now on its 11th edition. But it's the Difficulty Event that organizers expect to thrill to both contestants and spectators. Joey Cuerdo of Power Up, which set up the Philippines' first indoor sport climbing gym, explained why: "All the climbers will try the course for the first time. They will have no practice, and they won't have any idea what the wall would look like, because it would be set up only on the night before the competition. And on the the day itself, they would be put in an isolation area before they're called to climb." Each climber will have only eight minutes to climb the wall, which will have only 20 holds. Whoever makes it to the highest level, wins. The coming competition is the culmination of activities that started with the Junior Circuit held in Vigan last February and the Open Circuit in Iloilo last April. Sport climbing is now sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as part of the World Indoor Games, which includes sports not included as part of the regular Olympics. But sport climbing may be included in the 2012 Olympic Games, according to SCAPI president Jeremy Flores. SCAPI is a member of the Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme (UIAA), the organisation that represents millions of mountaineers and climbers world-wide on international issues. Formed in 1932, the UIAA is recognized the IOC. Sport climbing has been popular in Japan since the 1970s, with Singapore and Indonesia following its lead in the 1980s. The Philippines only got warm to the sport sometime in 1993 - and yet Filipino climbers have quickly climbed, literally, near the leading pack in Southeast Asia. Early this year, climber Miel Pahati finished third in the Asian X Games, behind Hong Kong and South Korea. The national competition is being presented by Winstruck Events Production and Marketing and organized by Power Up Gym. Its sponsors are Bacchus, Burlington, Mojo Slippers, Rogemson, HBC Inc., First Choice Foods Inc., and FM radio station Jam 88.3 The newly opened event venue is at the Frontera Verde Estates, at the corner of Julia Vargas and Ortigas Avenues. - GMANews.TV