American Sam Watson Breaks Speed Climbing Record at Olympics
He climbed a blistering time of 4.75 at the qualification elimination heats today in Paris
Photo by: Lena Drapella/IFSC
The men’s speed climbing event at the Paris Olympics started today. The 14 competitors first sprinted in qualification seeding heats, followed by head-to-head races in qualification elimination heats. Multiple Olympic, continental, and World records were broken throughout the round.
The qualification seeding phase of the comp saw the Olympic record being broken multiple times. The previous record of 5.45 seconds was held by Bassa Mawem of France from the Tokyo Olympics, when speed climbing was part of a combined event with boulder and lead. During the first set of seeding runs today, the Olympic record was broken four times:
- Rahmad Adi Mulyono 5.07
- Veddriq Leonardo 4.92
- Sam Watson 4.91
- Amir Maimuratov 4.89
In the second set of seeding runs, Matteo Zurloni of Italy set a new European continental record of 4.94 seconds. Veddriq Leonardo of Indonesia then tied the current world record time of 4.79 seconds. In the elimination heats, Team USA member Sam Watson broke this world record by 0.04 seconds, achieving a time of 4.75. Watson held the previous two world records – 4.798 and 4.859 – which he put up at the Speed World Cup in Wujiang in April this year.
“Obviously setting a new world record is awesome, and taking it back after I lost it by a couple of thousandths of a second [in the seeding heats], definitely means a lot,” said Watson after breaking the record in Paris. “In my second qualifying run, I got really close – just a tiny slip – but probably one of the faster [10-metre runs ever]. That really meant a lot to me and I can go a lot faster. I’m in the Olympic final and we’re going to try and compete for a medal.”
The men’s speed climbing quarter-final, semi-final, and final is being held on Thursday August 8. Will we see more records broken? Watson’s record-breaking climb as well as the match-ups for Thursday’s quarter-final races are found below:
- Sam Watson (USA) vs. Julian David (NZL)
- Matteo Zurloni (ITA) vs. Peng Wu (CHN)
- Veddriq Leonardo (INA) vs. Bassa Mawen (FRA)
- Amir Maimuratov (KAZ) vs. Reza Alipour Shenazandifard (IRI)
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