When Sasha Gerzha prepares the routes for the first ever Tamworth Boulder Cup at the Freestyle Bouldering Gym in Tamworth this week, the walls will become his canvas.
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The Russian bouldering champion won’t compete but will instead work as the architect for the two-day competition.
“When you’re setting, it’s just about creating. You can make whatever you want,” Gerzha said.
“First I choose the wall where I want to create the route, then choose holds which I really like and then [you can do] whatever else comes to your mind. It’s like painting.”
The Tamworth Boulder Cup is similar the gym’s weekly Freestyle Bouldering League repackaged into a two-day tournament with a couple extra challenges.
It will cater for athletes of all skill levels with three separate grades to compete in.
Freestyle Bouldering Gym’s Chris Eather said that’s the idea behind the gym and the tournament – to cater for everyone.
“There’s C grade and those guys can come off the street, enjoy the day and have a bit of fun,” Eather said.
“And we’ve opened it to the broader market. There’s a group from Armidale coming down, a group from Newcastle and guys from Sydney.
“For us it’s all about the community. We created the event to try and allow everyone access.”
The three qualifying rounds will be run on Friday at 6pm and Saturday from 8am to 12.15pm.
After that, new routes will be set for the finals which will run from 4pm to 8pm. Finalists will get two minutes to look at each new route and four minutes to solve them.
