National Speed Climbing champion, 18 year old Julian David, has recently added the prestigious Junior (U20) World Championship title to his name with a hard fought, gritty win against his American finals opponent.
The win has given Julian and Climbing NZ High Performance Director and Speed Programme Head Coach Rob Moore, the confidence to eye up the upcoming Oceania championship in Melbourne in late November. A win will see the young Kiwi climber gain the region’s qualifying male speed climbing spot in Paris.
Four years ago, Julian was enjoying recreational climbing at the Mount Maunganui climbing wall when an encounter with Rob prompted him to look at the opportunity to take up speed climbing, a move away from his previous preference for bouldering.
Since then, the 27-year coaching veteran and his schoolboy protégé have forged a successful partnership which is starting to pay dividends on the international stage.
Rob’s passion for the sport is contagious. He is quite simply Mr Climbing NZ and since Speed Climbing became part of the Olympics and HPSNZ’s aspirational sports programme, he has been instrumental in developing his six strong group of climbers including Julian. He worked with Bay of Plenty Sport Climbing Association to build an outdoor Olympic speed wall at Blake Park in Mount Maunganui. To enable climbers to train consistently in all weather conditions, Rob built an indoor venue and wall with the help of HPSNZ and helped pull together a tight team to provide Julian and his fellow climbers with high performance support.
“Tokyo was the first Olympics to feature climbing, initially as an event which combined the three climbing disciplines. The sport made for such good TV coverage the IOC made a second medal available for the sport by splitting speed climbing off,” says Rob.
Of Julian, Rob says he is quite simply an amazing talent. “He’s so fast and is a remarkably ‘poppy’ athlete with an amazing vertical leap.
“In track sprint testing, Julian ranks highly. He has the natural talent and now with a huge amount of hard work he is delivering some quite outstanding results. Quite simply, the more we do the better he gets which is reflected in the impressive improvement in his PB times and his performances in competitions.
Julian is equally enthusiastic and passionate about the sport and his relationship with Rob. “The sport owes Rob a real debt of gratitude. Without his drive we wouldn’t have the indoor wall which has been essential given the wet and windy weather we’ve had which makes outdoor climbing impossible,” says Julian.
The relationship between athlete and coach was critical to Julian’s success at last month’s Junior World Championships in Seoul. “Three of our climbing team went to Seoul but unfortunately Rob wasn’t able to come with us. We were really worried that it would be harder without Rob, especially as the stakes were so much higher. None of us had experienced that sort of pressure,” says Julian.
“But the work and support team on the ground back in New Zealand, organised and managed by Rob, helped us enormously. Through Rob and Climbing NZ’s relationship with HPSNZ, I’ve had access to a mental skills coach, hugely important given the pressures in Seoul, as well as some S&C and physio support.”
With their sights firmly set on Melbourne and the opportunity to win an Olympic qualifying spot, Rob and Julian both send a big shout out to HPSNZ.
“We are part of a small, emerging sport in New Zealand but we have big dreams. Since the win in Seoul we’ve been getting so many comments from international coaches about how fast we have been getting in New Zealand in such a short timeframe,” says Rob.
“This is 100% due to the support from HPSNZ’s staff and facilities which reflects the value HPSNZ sees in our programme and supporting us on our journey. We are so excited for the future.”
