Veddriq Leonardo Breaks Rock Climbing World Record in South Korea

VIVA – The Indonesian athlete Veddriq Leonardo won a gold medal, and breaks a new world record of a sub-five-second climb at the 2023 International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) World Cup in Seoul, South Korea, on Friday. 

Leonardo has successfully become the winner in the gold medal final by clocking 5.01 seconds, beating China's Jinbao Long who clocked 5.12 seconds. Previously, he also managed to break and sharpen the world record rolled in South Korea.

In the qualifying round, Leonardo posted 4.98 seconds to break the world record of another Red and White rock climber, Kiromal Katibin with 5.00 seconds when he appeared at the IFSC World Cup in Chamonix, France on July 8, 2022.

Shortly after that, he impressed again in the quarter-finals against Peng Wu from China by sharpening his newly achieved world record by clocking 4.90 seconds, leaving Wu who finished with 6.13 seconds.

In addition to winning gold in the men's speed number, Indonesia also managed to bring home one bronze in the women's speed number through Desak Made Rita Kusuma Dewi who recorded a time of 6.60 seconds in the third place race defeating Polish representative Aleksandra Kalucka with 6.71 seconds.

Overall, Indonesia sent nine rock climbing athletes to South Korea with details of six male speed athletes and three female speed athletes.

These results also increase the motivation of athletes to be able to continue to excel, especially at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, France.