Two new events will be featured as the Huntsman World Senior Games begin this week in Southern Utah.

Thousands of athletes will pass through Washington County over the next two weeks, participating in 36 different sports, including pickle ball, softball, soccer, climbing and indoor rowing.

Wait, climbing and rowing?

Yes, the two new sports to hit the Huntsman World Senior Games involve props. Namely: A climbing wall and a rowing machine.

Climbing

There are three different climbing events at the games. 1. Speed climbing; 2. Lead climbing; 3. Top Rope climbing. All three events will take place at Contact Climbing Gym (2875 East 850 North St. George).

  1. Speed climbing -- Just like ti sounds, the goal here is to get to the top of the climbing wall in the least amount of time possible. The world record for speed climbing is 4.74 seconds.
  2. Lead climbing -- Lead climbing is where a climber ascends a route while clipping their rope into pre-placed protection points, such as bolts or gear. The climber is called the "lead climber" and is responsible for leading the way and clipping the rope at intervals. A second climber, called the "belayer", remains at the base of the route to protect the lead climber by belaying the rope.
  3. Top rope climbing -- In top-rope climbing, the rope is already threaded through an anchor at the top of the route. The climber ties into one end of the rope on the ground.

Indoor Rowing

The other new event, indoor rowing, involves three different categories, 2,000 meters, 5,000 meters and the relay 2,000 meters..

  1. 2,000 meters -- This individual event takes about 10 minutes or so (depending on age and fitness level). "A 2,000-meter row test is a good gauge of fitness because it measures strength, cardio, and overall fitness. Some say that a good time to finish the test is seven minutes or less."
  2. 5,000 meters -- Another individual event, focused more on endurance rather than speed. A good time would be 22 minutes or so, although most will come in at 25-minutes-plus.
  3. 2,000-meter relay -- Four team members will go 500 meters each in this quick sprint, which could be done by the better rowers in seven-to-ten minutes. All four rowers must use the same weight on the rowing machine.

The indoor rowing event will take place at the Dixie Convention Center's Entrada Room.

For the record, the HWSG's most popular venue is softball, with more than 600 teams.

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