Quick hands in action at champs

Photo/File

Speed stackers from around the North Island, including this region's four New Zealand representatives, will be competing for the Central District Sport Stacking Championships at Cullinane College today.

The Central Districts titles are to be contested by both children and adults at the school's gymnasium on Peat St, which will be open to spectators from 8.45am.

There will be seven events involving the plastic drinking-style cups - four individual, two teams, and one doubles category.

They will all compete for the Central Districts All-Round Champion crown, as well as for the different grades.

Participants stack and unstack 12 specially designed cups in predetermined sequences.

The benefits of taking part in sport stacking include improved hand-eye co-ordination, concentration, dexterity and fitness.

Among the entries will be all 12 members of the national team, the 2015 NZ Black Stacks - aged 10 to 17 - who are off to the 2015 world championships in Montreal, Canada, in April.

This includes Wanganui teenagers Allanah Millar and Jasmine Anthony, Marton's Caleb Arthur and Feilding's Ben Flighty.

Millar and Anthony took up the activity when they were at St Mary's School five years ago, and had been chosen for the Junior Black Stacks team to compete in Taiwan at the Asian championships in August, before the trip was cancelled.

Flighty and Arthur were among the wider 20-strong New Zealand group announced in July, along with Brianna and Josiah Arthur, which was whittled down to 12.

For more information visit www.speedstacks.co.nz and http://newzealandblackstacks.wikispaces.com/.