The Weekend Preview: July 10-12, 2026
Highlighting competitions from around the world of speedcubing.
Australian Nationals gets Yiheng Wang, the Philippines crowns its national champions, and New Zealand has already produced a Clock world record.
Welcome back to the Speedcuber’s Digest Weekend Preview, where we look ahead at the potential storylines going into the weekend.
Australian Nationals 2026
Australian Nationals 2026 takes place July 9-12 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, at Stonnington Sports Centre.
The biggest storyline is Yiheng Wang being registered for the competition. Wang cannot become Australian national champion, but he can win events overall, which creates the possibility of split storylines between the overall winner and the national title race.
In 3x3, that means the Australian title could still come down to the top eligible Australian competitors even if Wang controls the overall field.
Several major names give the competition depth beyond Wang. Charlie Eggins, Feliks Zemdegs, and Riley Dexter are among the key competitors to watch across the schedule, giving Australian Nationals one of the most recognizable fields of the weekend.
Zemdegs remains one of the most important figures in the history of speedcubing, while Eggins brings world-class blindfolded credentials. Dexter is another name to watch across Australia’s broader 3x3 national title picture.
GAN Philippine Championship 2026
GAN Philippine Championship 2026 takes place July 9-12 in Pavia, Iloilo, Philippines, at Robinsons Place Pavia.
The competition is the Philippines’ national championship for 2026, and the strongest storylines appear spread across several events rather than centered on one single race.
Crimson Arradaza headlines 3x3 One-Handed after recently setting an unofficial world record single. The top competitor list also includes Gavriel Johann Arcilla, Inigo Miguel B. Palisoc, Jansen Alvarez, Karl Abarquez, and Leo Borromeo.
That variety gives the Philippine Championship a strong event-by-event feel. Rather than one dominant storyline, the weekend should be defined by whether the country’s top specialists can convert their seedings into national titles.
With national championships, the pressure is often different from a standard weekend competition. The results do not just decide podiums. They decide who carries the title for the next year.
GAN New Zealand Nationals 2026
GAN New Zealand Nationals 2026 takes place July 10-12 in Wellington, New Zealand, at St Patrick’s College.
The competition is already underway, and it has already produced one of the biggest results of the weekend.
Lachlan Gibson recorded a 2.14 Clock average in the first round, setting a new world record. His solves were 2.10, 2.07, 2.22, 2.09, and 2.33, lowering Brendyn Dunagan’s previous world record of 2.24.
The result adds even more weight to New Zealand Nationals after the WCA’s recent decision to remove Clock from the official event list following the 2027 World Championship.
Gibson already held the Clock world record single, and the 2.14 average now puts him back on top of the average rankings as well. At a time when Clock’s future is already set, the event’s present continues to move faster.
That gives New Zealand Nationals a different kind of spotlight. The question now is whether Gibson’s record is the defining moment of the competition, or whether the rest of the weekend can produce more national title races and record-level results around it.