KATHMANDU, April 15: Life is not like fairytales and success can’t be achieved easily. You’ve to be strong and bold enough to achieve success overcoming criticisms and various other challenges. Phancha Maya Tamang, 18, national champion of sport climbing also had to go through lots of criticism for her choice.
According to Tamang, people criticized her saying that climbing wall is worthless as that wouldn’t help her sustain professionally. She also faced criticism on various issues such as when she returned home late evening. Nevertheless, she took criticism as motivational factor rather than being disappointed by that.
As the result of her determination, Pancha Maya Tamang became first in Wall Spider Sport Climbing Competition in 2013 at Astro Climbing Center in the first attempt. “I climbed the wall for the first time ever in my life just two or three days ahead of competition. Then without any other practice I directly climbed the wall without any hint of what I was doing but surprisingly I emerged first in speed category of sport climbing,” Tamang shared.
Wonders of rock climbing
Impressed by the performance and techniques used by her during the competition, she was praised by experienced players. They all motivated her to give continuity to sport climbing given the less number of women involved in sport climbing across the country at the time.
Then, she got one year membership in Astrek Climbing Wall where she practiced wall climbing from 5 PM to 8 PM every day after her school. Later, she learnt more about climbing. She also participated in the first international sport climbing held in Nepal and Tamang secured seventh position in the international competition.
Adding feathers in her cap, she became second on Park Young Suok and IFSC National Championship in 2013. Afterward, she never had to turn back as she always remained in the forefront of sport climbing in the national level. She became number one climber in Nepal by winning more than a dozen of competitions including Heritage Vertical Onsight Championship in 2014, third IFSC National Championship in 2014 , Inman Singh Memorial Rock Climbing Competition and some more.
Apart from her successes in national competitions, she also attained remarkable achievements in international sport climbing. She became third in Asian Championship in Junior Lead Climbing Competition in Singapore. She got 27th position in IFSC Bouldering World Cup in Mumbai in 2017.
During her early days, she had athletic and tomboy nature with short hair and often wore pants. Like boys, she adored football, basketball and other sports that are mostly preferred by boys. Moreover, she was also taekwondo player. However, she quit taekwondo in Grade 8 after getting black belt.
She is inspired by Korean rock climber Jain Kim who is the queen of lead climbing. She argued that Kim is short in height like her who proved that height and physical structure is secondary things over will power. Moreover, her elder brother Bishnu Tamang is her biggest role model in her career “who consistently inspired me to turn out as climber.”
“My brother is everything for me who trusted me more than anyone else. Though the gears of sport climbing are expensive, he never hesitated to buy those gears for me. He always encourages me to pursue my goal,” she said.
Currently, Tamang is studying humanities in Xavier International College in Grade 11 and also gives training of sport climbing to other people. She yearns to win world cup and also be prepared for qualifying in upcoming 2020 Olympics. Moreover, her larger goal is to empower Nepali women.
