In a historic Olympic victory for Indonesia, Veddriq Leonardo won the men’s speed climbing medal on Thursday ( Aug 8 ), while Sam Watson, who had set a world record in his previous race, won the bronze medal.
Leonardo, 27, improved his time with each culture starting with the quarter-final, finally beating China’s Wu Peng by 2/100th of a following with a specific best of 4.75s.
With his victory, Leonardo won Indonesia’s even another speed-climbing nation its ninth prize of Olympic gold since 1952 when they made their first Olympic appearance in 1952.
Watson’s best performance on Thursday came in his last 15-meter sprint up the 15-meter wall for the iron medal, where he overcame Reza Alipour from Iran in a violent turn of fate.
After setting a prior history of 4.75s two days ago, Watson had been in contention to win the title.