Paris 2024 sport climbing: Indonesia’s Veddriq Leonardo wins Speed gold as Sam Watson breaks world record for bronze

Indonesia’s Veddriq Leonardo scaled to victory to win the inaugural men’s Speed gold in the sport climbing at Paris 2024, as USA’s Sam Watson broke his own world record to take home the bronze.

A day after Aleksandra Mirosław won women’s Speed gold, Leonardo joined the Polish superstar in making history at the Olympic Games.

The thrilling nature of this elimination round saw Watson miss out on the final after losing to Wu Peng in the semis, only to then claim the bronze after a world-record climb of 4.74 seconds beat Reza Alipour.

Leonardo almost matched that time with a 4.75 to win gold, just 0.02 seconds faster than Wu of the People’s Republic of China, who wins the silver.

More to follow…