11:54 JST, August 9, 2024
PARIS, Aug 8 (Reuters) – Indonesia’s Veddriq Leonardo won a gold medal in the men’s speed climbing event at the Paris Olympics on Thursday, a historic Olympic title for his country, while American Sam Watson set a world record to win the bronze medal.
The 27-year-old Leonardo improved his time in every race, starting with the quarterfinals, eventually beating China’s Wu Peng by two hundredths of a second, achieving a personal best of 4.75 seconds.
The victory gave fast-climbing powerhouse Indonesia its first Olympic gold medal in a sport other than badminton, only its ninth victory since the country first competed at the Games in 1952.
I feel very happy, very joyful, he said. “My heart was racing (during the match), but I stayed focused and finished it.”
Fate had taken a cruel turn: his best performance on Thursday was his final sprint over the 15-metre wall, beating Iran’s Reza Alipour in the battle for bronze.
As the clock read a world record of 4.74 seconds, the 18-year-old remained unperturbed, knowing he could lose the title after setting the previous world record of 4.75 seconds two days ago.
I would definitely say I was still disappointed at that point, the Texas native said.
The world record is of course a very, very cool achievement, so I am happy with that. But you come here with the goal of winning gold.
In the end, Leonardo was the lucky winner, three-time World Cup champion and the first speed climber to ever break the five-second barrier.
Sport climbing made its debut at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, but speed was controversially combined with the disciplines of bouldering and lead climbing, which require completely different skills. In Paris, it will be the first time that speed specialists will compete in their own discipline.
In the women’s semi-final, Slovenian top athlete and reigning champion Janja Garnbret achieved a record 96.1 points. With that, she went a step further than her almost perfect bouldering result of two days ago and is at the top of the rankings in the final.
Athletes have six minutes to climb as high as possible on a 15-meter-high structure in one attempt in the lead event, collecting points for each hold achieved. The sum of the boulder and lead scores determines the eight finalists.
The 20-year-old Ai Mori was the only climber to equal Garnbret and her breakthrough to the final marked a changing of the guard for Japan, as 27-year-old Tokyo silver medallist Miho Nonaka just missed out on finishing in the top eight.
Left: Paris 2024 Olympic Games – Climbing – Women’s Boulder & Lead, Lead Semi-Final – Le Bourget Sport Climbing Venue, Le Bourget, France – August 8, 2024. Ai Mori of Japan in action Right: Japan’s Miho Nonaka in action
In the United States, Natalia Grossman was eliminated, while Brooke Raboutou secured her second chance at an Olympic medal.
