LE BOURGET: Veddriq Leonardo struck gold in the inaugural men’s speed climbing event on Thursday to give Indonesia their first Olympic title in a sport other than badminton at the Paris Games. The 27-year-old defeated China’s Wu Peng by just two hundredths of a second, scaling the 15-metre wall at the Le Bourget venue in 4.75 seconds. However American teenager Sam Watson set a new world record in the battle for bronze.
Watson, 18, had lost to Wu in the semi-finals but came back with a spectacular time of 4.74 seconds to finish third. Watson lowered his own world record for the fourth time this year. Leonardo had been the first man to break the five-second barrier in April 2023.
Integrated into a combination of speed, bouldering and lead in the Tokyo Olympics, speed is a discipline in its own right in Paris for the first time. For the Paris Games, organizers decided to separate out the speed element, the most spectacular of the climbing disciplines.
Indonesians celebrated their country’s first Olympic gold medal in a sport other than badminton, won by Veddriq Leonardo in the inaugural men’s speed climbing event in Paris on Thursday.
Veddriq climbed to a personal best time of 4.75 to beat Chinese rival Wu Peng by just two hundredths of a second on the 15-metre wall. The 27-year-old former world record holder secured the ninth Olympic gold medal in Indonesia’s history, the other eight all being won in badminton, much to the delight of fans and his family.
"Words can hardly express how we feel. Praise be to God,” his mother Rosita Hamzah told broadcaster Kompas TV. She said Veddriq called her on Wednesday night to ask her to pray for him before she watched his climb from home in Indonesia with other relatives.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo was among the first to congratulate Veddriq. "The Paris 2024 Olympics has brought new pride to Indonesia, thanks to Veddriq Leonardo, our proud speed climbing athlete, who secured Indonesia’s first gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics,” Widodo wrote on social media platform X.
"Congratulations!”
It was the inaugural individual men’s medal for the separate event of speed climbing, after it had been integrated into a combination of speed, bouldering and lead at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. "I am proud, very proud. The excitement was explosive,” Kristoforus Bagaskoro, a 41-year-old creative manager in the capital Jakarta, told AFP.
"We should hype up this sport more and help it develop even more.” The Southeast Asian archipelago has become an unlikely force in speed climbing, smashing records and nabbing multiple medals at top international events.
Veddriq has led that charge, his father saying his son’s enthusiasm for the exciting sport began after he joined a student group of nature enthusiasts that included wall climbing as an activity. "He really enjoys the sport. It has always been his dream,” his father Sumaryanto, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, told Kompas TV.
Veddriq’s coach broke down in tears after the victory and Indonesian Sport Climbing Federation chairwoman Yenni Wahid said she was "so moved I could cry”. Others hoped Indonesia would secure more climbing success and enjoyed Veddriq’s enthusiastic celebrations in Paris.
"He kept kissing the medal, and he couldn’t stop smiling. He looked like he had been relieved from a heavy burden,” 30-year-old Indonesian Annisa Balqis wrote on X. "Hopefully after this, he will be even more enthusiastic about winning.” — AFP