Tauranga teenage speed climber Julian David sets sight on the 2024 Olympics

Julian David can scale 15m in 6.98 seconds. The world record is 5 seconds. Photo / Supplied

Tauranga teenager Julian David can climb a 15-metre wall in less than seven seconds.

He competes as a speed climber, an Olympic sport with the objective of racing up a wall faster than the opponent.

Blake Park is home to New Zealand’s only official speed climbing wall. It’s 15mtall and overhangs at a five-degree angle.

Climbing New Zealand has been running a local programme since February, training young athletes in the sport and now, David, 17, dreams of representing the nation at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Born in La Rochelle, France, David moved to New Zealand when he was 3and started speed climbing in 2019.

This year he set a personal best time of 6.98 seconds during training, almost half a second faster than the official national record.

“My hopes for the team are getting to the highest level,” he said.

“Obviously we want to do really well and aim for the Olympics.”

David said his love for speed climbing came from the adrenaline.

“Getting a new personal best just makes you want to go faster”.

David had been to four international competitions and picked up two medals including gold in the Australian Youth Nationals and silver in a competition in New Caledonia.

Julian David hopes to represent New Zealand at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Photo / Supplied

The young athlete said his first World Cup in Jakarta, Indonesia earlier this year was his favourite competition.

“The atmosphere was next level, you would walk into a tent and see some of the fastest climbers in the world.”

He met the sport’s world record holder Kiromal Katibin who set it in July with 5 seconds.

The climbers’ programme features a tough training schedule, with only one rest day fit in each week.

“Usually we have two training sessions a day, gym in the morning and training at the wall in the afternoon.”

The training schedule also includes strict dietary requirements that mean most of the climbers will have to eat up to twice the amount of calories - about 4000 - they normally would.

Thanks to climbing enthusiast Rob Moore, Blake Park is home to the only official speed climbing wall in the country.

Moore said since the sport’s debut at the Tokyo Olympics, it had seen a “great increase” locally with the Bay of Plenty Speed Climbing Association growing 40 per cent year on year for the past three years.

“Speed climbing is growing constantly in popularity in the Bay, but my hope is that it will begin to become more popular in the rest of New Zealand also.

“Currently our New Zealand climbers are sitting just outside of finals times at [the] world level, but with the hard work and determination they are showing, New Zealand will soon be making finals at world cups which will be amazing for us.”

• Louis Johnston is a 15-year-old Mount Maunganui College student with a passion for sports and journalism. If you have a community sports story idea, please contact: news@bayofplentytimes.co.nz