Team take speed-stacking to next level

Four boys who make up New Zealand's newest national sports team are off to Denver, Colorado, tomorrow to try to bring home the world cup of cups.

The boys are members of the Black Stacks, our national representatives at a trend which has swept 300 schools across the past year.

Sport stacking involves building triangular towers out of plastic cups, then dismantling them, using alternate hands, in a race against the clock. And yes, its promoters say, it is a sport.

Palmerston North couple Richard and Tanya Sadlier introduced the craze here in late 2007 and have been promoting it in schools as an option for physical education classes during rainy winter months.

"It's fun; it's very addictive too," says Tanya Sadlier.

"People practise for hours and hours a day trying to get better."

The teachers of some of the boys in the team report their reading and handwriting has improved markedly, something Sadlier attributes to their new hobby.

Her son Michael, 13, was the first in the country to get his hands on the cups and, unsurprisingly, is the nation's fastest stacker.

"From November 2007 that's all he did, every waking minute of every day," said Sadlier. "It was great because it keeps him away from the TV."

Standing in Michael's way will be the Tiger Woods of the stacking world, an American named Steven Purugannan. At last year's champs, he broke world records in all three individual stacking classes. Purugannan has starred in ads for McDonald's, and turns 12 later this year.

This will be New Zealand's first appearance at the championships, at which competitors from eight nations and of all ages will compete. But it is the 11 to 13-year-olds who typically take the honours, as champion stackers slow as they get older.

"I'm not sure if it's a height thing or a hormonal thing or what it is," said Sadlier.

Michael believes he will one day be able to beat Purugannan's record of 5.93 seconds for the cycle stack, the most challenging move. "But not quite yet."

Michael's best time is 7.43; he hopes to be able to break the 8-second barrier on the day. "I'm just going to try to be confident in front of the judges."

His teammates, Carlos Polamalu- Cheffers and Jayden Walker, both 12, from Gisborne, and Adam Lawton, 13, from Palmerston North, will compete in individual and doubles contests, where they stand side by side and use a hand each to construct the towers. Lawton said he had been a stacking addict since he was introduced to the sport in PE class.

"I thought, wow, people actually do that?"

- © Fairfax NZ News