The South Island Secondary Schools Rock Climbing Championships were held at the YMCA Adventure Centre in Christchurch on Thursday 01 and Friday 02 September. We had three Mixed teams entered in this event.

As you can see from all the photos, it was a fantastic two days of climbing. The competition is set up so that it caters to and challenges all levels of climbers from beginners to the more experienced.  It is a lot of climbing over two days though and the arm pump was very real, with the end of the first day seeing our climbers trading various methods of how to relax and stretch your forearms before having to climb again the next day.

The Burnside High School Team of Sue Petrie 12SCSS, George Darnbrough 11SBUC, Robert Rider 9SOSC and Frank Roberts 11SESM won the South Island Secondary Schools Title in the Mixed Team Championship, and placed 2nd overall in the whole competition placing just behind a very strong all male team from Shirley Boys High School.

Our other two teams placed 22 and 23 out of 33 - a fantastic effort from both teams, some of whom were first time competitive climbers.

The other two teams comprised of:

• Karen Jorgenson 12SBSJ, Joran Le Quellec 12SJYR, Ameya Raut 12SBSJ and Jai Bartlett 12SDES (placed 23rd)
• Corey Griffiths 9WJCN, Daniel Grounds 9WDNK, Mia Grounds 11WWAJ and Charlie Helmore 9NRSS (placed 22nd)

Thank you to all the parents who made the tournament such a success for our teams by supporting them at this event.