Leonardo wins Indonesia’s 1st gold at Paris Olympics

PARIS: Veddriq Leonardo won Indonesia’s first gold medal of the Paris Olympics after edging China’s Wu Peng in sport climbing men’s speed big final on Thursday.

Sam Watson of the United States took bronze in a world record time of 4.74 seconds. Leonardo clocked a personal best of 4.75 seconds in the big final, 0.02 seconds faster than Wu, who eliminated world record holder Watson in the semifinals by a margin of 0.08 seconds. “I feel very happy, I feel very joyful to bring the first gold medal for Indonesia at Paris 2024 to my country,” Leonardo said.

Leonardo advanced smoothly to the final, defeating 39-year-old Bassa Mawem of France and then Reza Alipour of Iran along the way. Wu, however, faced much closer matches. In the quarterfinals, he secured the narrowest win of the day, edging out reigning world champion Matteo Zurloni of Italy by just 0.002 seconds. He then survived another tight contest against Watson before ultimately falling short in the final. “The quarterfinal brought me the most joy because the margin was so small. I honestly thought I might lose, but winning made me very excited,” the 21-year-old commented, though he admitted he was a bit disappointed to have lost by such a narrow margin in the final.

Wu’s silver medal marked China’s second in the sport at the Paris Olympics, following Deng Lijuan’s silver in women’s speed on Wednesday. “I’m not at my best today. I usually feel lighter and don’t need as much power to climb. Today, my body felt heavy, but I managed to make quick adjustments,” Wu noted. Watson had set a new record of 4.75 seconds in the qualifications two days ago and sliced 0.01 second off his own mark in the small final against Alipour.