Last week saw 800 participants from eight countries gathering to compete at the 12^th edition of Gravical at SMU’s Campus Green. Organised by the SMU Climb Team, the annual bouldering competition is the first climbing competition in Singapore’s Climbing Calendar and has established itself as a regular feature in both the local and Asian Climbing scene. With a five-metre high wall, it has set a new record for the highest bouldering wall in a local competition.

Held over four days from 11 to 14 January, the competition included participants from secondary, pre-university and tertiary institutions and working adults. There were a total of five categories catering to all levels of climbing – Under 17, Novice, Intermediate, Open and Team, with competitors hailing from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Japan, Australia and France.

The lead route-setter for the competition was Mr Tobias Diedler from Germany, an internationally acclaimed route-setter. He has set numerous German National climbing competition routes and also manages the famous boulder gym FLASHH in Germany. He was assisted by a talented team of local route-setters from Kinetics Gym, led by former National Climber and North Face Sponsored Athlete, Mr Jay Koh.

The finals took place on 14 January, with Sugimoto Rei from Japan claiming top spot in the Men’s Open category while Aya Onoe, also from Japan, took top honours in the Women’s Open category. Defending Champion and SMU’s Vanessa Teng who finished second place said, “The routes were very challenging and I relished the very close and strong competition. I learned a lot personally.”

Said Sugimoto Rei (Men’s Open Champion), “I had some trouble adapting to the humidity here but I heard it could have been worse if not for the cold spell. Anyway, I adapted well and managed a good competition. It was a challenging competition and my opponents were very strong climbers too.”

Said Professor Paulin Straughan, Dean of Students at SMU, “It was my first time at this event; I was absolutely captivated by the competition. It was heartening for me that our SMU Climb Team has managed to reach such a standard of organising a competition with international participation. There can only be beneficial out-of-classroom learning from this whole experience, which is what we intended for our SMU students.”

With the growing demand in the sport of climbing, SMU Gravical aims to enhance the climbing competition standards and experience for participants and also contribute to the development of the route-setting community by organising a route-setting course in future. 

More photos of the SMU Gravical 2018 can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/pg/sgsmu/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2012227412137111

Read more about the event in the Straits Times.