Poland and Indonesia Earn Third Consecutive Win at Speed World Cup

After a record setting qualifier in Salt Lake City, 16 men and 16 women took to the international stage for the final Speed runs of the weekend. The news yesterday can be found here, but is summed by two new world records, a new US women’s national record, a new Canadian men’s national record, a new Spanish men’s record, and the continued domination of the sport by the Indonesian and Polish teams.

Men

The final opened with a blistering 5.19-second run from Indonesia’s Kiromal Katibin. After his record setting run in qualifiers, his continued rapid pace appears ever more consistent. With that said, the Indonesian record holder could not keep the consistency through the quarter final. He fell and left the podium to teammate Veddriq Leonardo.

Leonardo is slower than his teammate, however, he climbs with greater consistency. With one gold medal already under his belt from earlier this season, Leonardo kept it together with quick runs through the quarter and half finals. In the end, he walked away with gold after Austria’s Plangger fell on the finals route.

Canada’s Ethan Pitcher also had a strong competition making finals but failing to move past the round of 16. His rapid progression could become something to watch as he stuck with Leonardo for much of the route. a small slip and he fell behind.

Commentator Pete Woods mentioned that he has seen Pitcher put a time up in the 5.6-second range. Should he manage to run this pace in competition, Pitcher could become competitive for podium.  In the meantime, consistency is the greatest determiner of success in finals, and the reason American John Brosler fell short against Italian Olympian Ludovico Fossali.

Brosler slipped in the quarter final. Despite his more rapid pace surrounding the fall, he could not catch Fossali. Notably, Brosler is fast enough to win gold for the US if he can manage consistency between rounds. His consistency has improved in his regularly making finals. Should he continue to progress in this capacity, he could become a dangerous competitor to the Indonesian leaders.

However, yesterday Fossali secured victory against Brosler and went on to secure bronze in a narrow run against Poland’s Dzienski. Fossali won with a time of 5.49 to Dzienski’s 5.56.

Women

The women followed the men through each round. Poland’s world record holder Aleksandra Miroslaw ran quickly through the round of 16, earning the quarter final with a speed of 6.9 seconds. This was Miroslaw’s slowest time of the round. It was also faster than every time from every other athlete across the entire women’s competition.

Although Miroslaw distanced herself from her competitors with a dominating performance, the final did not come easy for her. In fact, Miroslaw ran only .01 seconds slower than her world record time in this final run for gold. She went up against Team USA’s Emma Hunt.

Hunt started the final slow, but picked up the pace in the quarter- and half-finals. In the final, Hunt kept with Miroslaw, only just behind the record setting Polish climber. A slip near the top cost Hunt her run but showed that she is getting progressively faster and stronger. Hunt earned silver for her efforts.

In the small final, the Kalucka sisters battled for third. Although Aleksandra Kalucka won, she ran a slower 7.96 after her sister Natalia fell on the route. The final four in the women’s field cements the Polish team as dominant, however, Hunt is in the running for future events should she manage to retain consistency across the upcoming world cup events

Result

Men

1 – Veddriq Leonardo (INA)

2 – Tobias Plangger (AUT)

3 – Ludovico Fossali (ITA)

Women

1 – Aleksandra Miroslaw (POL)

2 – Emma Hunt (USA)

3 – Aleksandra Kalucka (POL)

Featured image by Daniel Gajda.