Indonesia’s Veddriq Leonardo upsets American Sam Watson to win speed gold

PARIS – Indonesia’s Veddriq Leonardo won a “dream” gold medal in the men’s speed climbing at the Paris Games on Aug 8 in a historic Olympic title for his country, while American Sam Watson walked away with a bronze despite setting a world record in his last race.

Leonardo, 27, improved his time with each race starting with the quarter-final, ultimately beating China’s Wu Peng by two hundredths of a second with a personal best of 4.75 seconds.

His win gave speed-climbing powerhouse Indonesia their first Olympic gold in a sport other than badminton, and only their ninth since the country’s first appearance at the Games in 1952.

“I feel so amazing. This was always my dream, and today I made my dream come true,” said a visibly elated Leonardo.

“All of Indonesia is proud of this gold medal.”

In a cruel twist of fate for Watson, his best performance came in his final sprint up the 15-metre wall for the bronze medal, when he beat Iran’s Reza Alipour.

As the clock flashed a world record of 4.74sec, the 18-year-old remained stone-faced, knowing the title had been his to lose after setting the previous world mark of 4.75sec two days ago.

He did, however, congratulate Leonardo afterwards, posting on Instagram: “To Veddriq the star of the sport, you’ve given quite the fight for the world record over the year.

“The greatest speed climber of all time. Indonesia and all its people deserve you and your gold medal. Absolute hero.”

The day ultimately belonged to Leonardo, a three-time World Cup champion and the first speed climber to break the five-second barrier.

Integrated into a combination of speed, bouldering and lead at the Tokyo Olympics, speed is a discipline in its own right in Paris for the first time. For these Games, organisers decided to separate out the speed element, the most spectacular of the climbing disciplines.

In the women’s lead semi-final, Slovenia’s sport climbing great and defending champion Janja Garnbret soared to an event-best 96.1 points, adding to her near-perfect boulder result two days ago to take her to the final atop the leaderboard.

In the lead event, athletes have six minutes to climb as high as possible up a 15m structure in a single attempt, racking up points with every hold reached.

The wall is at a 42-degree reverse incline in the steepest zone and its profile is unique in every competition.

Athletes’ scores from the lead and boulder events are added up to determine the best eight who advance to the final.

Japan’s Ai Mori, 20, was the only climber to match the Slovenian in lead, earning her a standing ovation from the sold-out crowd.

Her progress to the final meant a changing of the guard for Japan, with 27-year-old Tokyo silver medallist Miho Nonaka just missing out on the top eight.

Another surprise elimination was American Natalia Grossman, while compatriot Brooke Raboutou went through in third place in her second attempt to win an Olympic medal. REUTERS, AFP