Sam Watson breaks own world record in Speed climbing to reach quarter-finals at Paris 2024 Olympics

Records tumble in men’s Speed qualifying at Paris 2024

A day after Aleksandra Mirosław shattered her own world record in the women’s Speed qualifying, it was the men’s turn on Tuesday afternoon.

The first part of qualifying was to determine the seedings for the elimination round to follow, with climbers having two cracks to record their best time possible.

Records tumbled almost straight away, too, with Rahmad Adi Mulyono of Indonesia in the second pairing out and the first to break the Olympic record with a 5.07s.

Wu Peng, who claimed victory at the Olympic Qualifier Series 2024 Budapest in June, then went 5.07s as well before Leonardo set a new OR of 4.92s.

Watson then went 0.01s better to snatch the OR, but it belonged to Amir Maimuratov at the end of the first rotation after the Kazakhstan climber went up in 4.89s.

During the second runs for seeding, Leonardo then matched Watson’s world record time of 4.79s, laying down a marker before the elimination round.

In the elimination heats, Leonardo knocked out Adi Mulyono – who had done a false start in his second seeding run – before Watson eliminated compatriot Zach Hammer when posting the new world record.

Maimuratov and Wu also advanced, while the heats finished with a flourish for the French crowd watching on, as home hope Bassa Mawem pipped Yaroslav Tkach by just 0.01 seconds to progress.