PARIS: Veddriq Leonardo clinched the gold medal in the men’s speed climbing at the Paris Games on Thursday (Aug 8) in a historic Olympic title for Indonesia, 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 2/100th of a second with a personal best of 4.75s.
With his win, Leonardo gave speed-climbing powerhouse Indonesia their first Olympic gold medal in a sport other than badminton, and only their ninth since their first appearance at an Olympics in 1952.
In a cruel twist of fate for Watson, his best performance on Thursday came in his final sprint up the 15-metre wall for the bronze medal, in which he beat Iran’s Reza Alipour with a world record time of 4.74s.
Watson had been a favourite to take the title after eclipsing his own previous world record with 4.75s two days ago.
