Whanganui climber Rachel Māia wins silver medal at Paraclimbing World Cup in Salt Lake City

Rachel Māia won New Zealand's first climbing medal at a world cup level. Photo / Kate Jo Myers

Whanganui paraclimber Rachel Māia has won New Zealand's first climbing medal at a world cup, the national body for the sport says.

Competing in the International Federation of Sport Climbing Paraclimbing World Cup in Salt Lake City last week, Māia scored 22+ after qualifying with the highest score.

She finished behind Australian Sarah Larcombe in the final, while Tânia Chaves of Portugal came third.

Māia said the competition had been a high point of her life, despite feeling a degree of disappointment she didn't perform as well in the finals as she did in the qualifiers.

"But I've had plenty of time to reflect and to acknowledge why my head wasn't in the game on the day," Māia said.

"So with that done, the focus now is just to rest and recover and be in the now."

Climbing New Zealand president Richard Waldin said although the country had won in regional championships, Māia's medal was a first at a world cup level.

It was absolutely brilliant for the climbing community in New Zealand, Waldin added.

"Climbing is a very niche sport but it's actually growing really fast. There's been a lot of interest in climbing as a sport, and lots of new climbing gyms are being built around the country."

Every handhold a climber gets as they go up the wall they are awarded one point. If there's a plus it means the climber fell off the wall.

Māia climbed 22 handholds and then fell off as she reached for the 23rd hold.

"She qualified really well and dominated in first place. I think that demonstrates lots of potential to repeat and potentially get gold next time," Waldin said.

One of Māia's mentors Rob Moore said the isolation that New Zealanders had from a lot of sports over the past two or three years had been good for Māia's preparation.

"She's been able to put in really big training blocks and focus entirely on training as opposed to having to peak for certain events which can get in the way of training," Moore said.

"The amount of hard work she put in really paid off. She's been working incredibly hard."

Māia said now was time to take it one step at a time as she heads to Europe for the next world cup in Innsbruck in Austria.

She will be competing in the qualifiers on June 21, and then the finals on June 22 if she makes it through.

Māia then heads to Switzerland for another world cup with qualifiers on July 8 and the finals on July 9 before returning home.