Climbing New Zealand Selection Policies

Selection policy document for National Team selections (Youth Team, Open Team and Development Squads)

Current documents

Revision history

Revision	Change summary
2026	Released August 2026. Further clarifies selection eligibility Updates age categories for consistency with World Climbing Updates the percentage of athletes who may be selected to a Development Squad and introduces a two-year Development Squad cycle Further clarifies how the Expressions of Interest process works in practice Updates references to World Climbing (from IFSC) Retains Minimum Selection Standards for Speed only Minor wording tidy up throughout
2023	Released November 2023. Clarifies the definition of a Selection Camp Allows Expressions of Interest to be used as part of the selection process (section 6.6) Introduces single discipline selections, under certain circumstances, for Australian Youth Championships (section 6.30) Minor wording tidy up
2022	Released December 2022. Redefines national selector criteria to remove specific named roles; selectors now selected at large via the Expressions of Interest process (clause 6.7) Includes the Speed discipline in the selection process (clause 4.3, table 2) Includes World University Championships in the selection process (table 2) Adds competitive climbing experience as a factor when selecting for World Youth Championships (clause 6.24c)

The current Climbing New Zealand selection committee is Rob Moore, Chris Warburton and Peter Lofthouse. Convener: Duncan Kenderdine.

If you have any questions or queries relating to the selection process please send an email to this email address selection@climbing.nz

Olympic Qualification (LA28)

CNZ will publish a separate policy covering qualification and selection for the LA28 Olympic Games in due course. This page will be updated once that document is available.

Speed Climbing

Climbing New Zealand Speed Climbing selection standards:

These standards are limited to Open, Junior, U19 and U17 categories.

Category	Male	Female
Open	≤ 10.000s	≤ 13.000s
Junior	≤ 11.000s	≤ 14.000s
U19	≤ 12.000s	≤ 15.000s
U17	≤ 12.000s	≤ 15.000s

U19 and Junior athletes can qualify a time for their age group while competing in the Open category.

For the sake of clarity there is no speed qualification for U15 and U13 as these grades climb on the Pacific K route and this has no international relevance at this stage.

Clarification on competing at Oceania and Australian and New Caledonian events

Official Oceania events (OCSC sanctioned): These events will be subject to CNZ selection processes, number of athletes will be determined by OCSC but may include 6-10 athletes per category. Athletes selected will represent New Zealand and wear the official CNZ Uniform.

Australian Open Championships: Event entry numbers will be determined by Sport Climbing Australia. There may be options to compete as an individual without being selected to represent NZ. Only athletes formally selected to represent NZ by CNZ are eligible to wear the official CNZ Uniform.

Australian Youth Championships: Event entry numbers will be determined by Sport Climbing Australia. This event is subject to CNZ selection processes. In recent years NZ entries have been limited to 2 athletes per discipline per age category. Athletes selected will wear CNZ official uniform.

Australian State Championships: Event entry numbers will be determined by the State Climbing organisers, or Sport Climbing Australia. There may be opportunities to compete without formal selection, i.e. compete as an international individual. Unless formally selected to represent New Zealand athletes are not entitled to wear the CNZ Uniform.