Indonesia’s Veddriq Leonardo wins Speed gold as Sam Watson breaks world record for bronze

Fighting for a place in the gold medal race, Watson versus Wu looked too difficult to call ahead of their showdown.

Watson had snuck ahead, but Wu took advantage of the slightest of stumbles from the American to reach the final with a 4.85 to Watson’s 4.93.

Their times were sublime, and a sign of how quickly Speed climbing has improved in recent years, and in the second semi-final both competitors went even quicker.

Leonardo – the overall Speed World Cup winner in 2021, 2022 and 2023 – secured a 4.78 personal best to edge out Alipour (4.84).

And it then got even quicker. In the scrap for bronze, Watson put behind his disappointment to clinch a new world record of 4.74, just 0.01 seconds faster than his previous best set on Tuesday, to beat Alipour.

The showpiece then fittingly saw the quickest race of the entire finals, with Leonardo slapping the board just 0.02 seconds before rival Wu to become the first Indonesian to stand on the top podium at Paris 2024.

Sport climbing: Men’s speed podium at Paris 2024

Gold: Veddriq Leonardo (Indonesia)

Silver: Wu Peng (People’s Republic of China)

Bronze: Sam Watson (USA)