Solving the puzzle in double-quick time

ANDREW GORRIE/The Dominion Post

YOUNG CHAMP: Competing in the one-handed speed race at the championships is Australian and world record-holder 14-year-old Feliks Zemdegs, watched by New Zealand champion Dene Beardsley.

The nimblest fingers in the country have been hard at work solving hundreds of puzzles in mere seconds.

World and New Zealand records fell at Saturday's Rubik's New Zealand speed-cubing championships, held at Te Papa, with the holder of the world-record shaving almost a second off the previous record he set of 9.21 seconds over five puzzles.

Melbourne schoolboy Feliks Zemdegs, 14, blitzed the 40-strong field with his winning average time of 8.52 seconds, with a best time of 7.94 seconds, and remains the only person in the world to have achieved a sub-10-second average.

The New Zealand champion is Christchurch's Dene Beardsley, 21, who beat 35 other Kiwis with a winning average time of 15.42 seconds, bettering his own previous New Zealand record. He had a single best time of 13.53 seconds.

Wellington's Frank Grieve came a respectable 17th, with an average speed of 38.89 seconds over five puzzles.

Speed Cubing New Zealand president Joshua Brungar said this year's times were much faster than last year's championships.

Feliks was likely to keep blitzing his own records. "He's done better than that at home, so hopefully he'll get faster and faster."

He still had many Rubiks-cubing years left in him, although most of the competitors were in their teens, as reaction speeds tended to slow after that, he said.

There were also five females competing in the event – although Rubik's cubing was much more popular with males – and three Australians and a Korean, he said.

The competition featured the traditional three-by-three cube, as well as four-by-four and five-by-five cubes. Feliks also broke the world record for the best single four-by-four time, with 35.55 seconds.

- © Fairfax NZ News