A 13-year-old girl from Shenzhen amazed the audience and her competitors during the final of a rock climbing competition for the 13th National Games of China held in Chongqing on August 8.

Zhang Yuetong, who is a middle school student in Nanshan District, won the championship of the women’s group during the competition. She was the only one in the group who completed the climbing route within the stipulated time, according to a Shekou News report.

When sitting in class, Yuetong looks no different from other schoolgirls her age, but put her on a rock climbing wall and she transforms. She won the championship of a provincial rock climbing competition in Guangdong when she was 9 and became a national champion when she was 12. Currently, she is the youngest member of the national rock climbing training team.

The girl’s father, Zhang Jiandong, said Yuetong started rock climbing when she was 4. He is supportive of his daughter and has brought her to rock climbing clubs in Hong Kong at least once a week for training since a few years ago.

Zhang usually picks up Yuetong at around 5 p.m. after school and they take a bus to Shenzhen Bay Checkpoint, cross the border and head to a climbing club in Kowloon.

Yuetong has become friends with several rock climbers in the club, who are mainlanders working or studying in Hong Kong. The coach and other rock climbers in the club are impressed by Yuetong’s excellent climbing skills, and they are always willing to share new climbing routes with her.

Although Yuetong now has to train in Beijing and participate in competitions nationwide after she joined the national team, the girl said she still looks forward to going to the climbing club in Hong Kong when she comes back to Shenzhen.

“I can join an international competition next year. I want to go and learn from other rock climbers to improve myself,” she said. After rock climbing was included in the Olympic Games, Yuetong has set a new goal for herself — attending the Olympic Games and winning a gold medal.

(Zhang Yang)