Veddriq Leonardo Wins Gold at Salt Lake City Rock Climbing World Cup

VIVA – Indonesia through Veddriq Leonardo managed to add a gold medal in the Rock Climbing World Cup or IFSC World Cup 2023. This victory was achieved in the men's speed number in the Salt Lake City series, the United States, on Sunday. 

Veddriq Leonardo defeated Chinese athlete Peng Wu by clocking 4.95 seconds. While his opponent recorded a time of 6.99 seconds. 

Throughout the 2023 season, Leonardo has impressed. Previously at the IFSC World Cup 2023 series in Seoul, South Korea, on April 30, he won gold and broke the world record.

Leonardo recorded his name as the fastest rock climbing athlete in the world after the qualifying round posted 4.98 seconds, breaking the world record of another Indonesian rock climber, Kiromal Katibin with 5.00 seconds when he appeared at the IFSC World Cup 2022 in Chamonix, France on July 8. 

When Indonesia hosted the IFSC World Cup 2023 on May 7, he was only able to place fifth. Now, he's making up for that failure in Salt Lake City.

Apart from gold, Indonesia also got one bronze through male speed athlete Kiromal Katibin after recording a time of 4.98 seconds, beating host representative Samuel Watson with 5.98 seconds in the race for third place.

Chairman of the Indonesian Rock Climbing Federation (FPTI) Yenny Wahid was very satisfied with the achievements of the two after they impressed in the final with a time under five seconds.

"Of course, this is a very impressive positive result for me. They were able to finish the final in under five seconds. This is very extraordinary progress because they always show progress in every performance," Wahid said in a written statement received in Jakarta on Monday.

Wahid hopes that the performances of all Indonesian speed athletes can continue to be consistent to achieve the target of qualifying for the 2024 Olympics in Paris, France.

The day before, Indonesian female speed athlete Made Rita Kusuma Dewi also won a silver medal by recording a time of 6.82 seconds behind her Polish opponent Aleksandra Miroslaw who finished first with a time of 6.43 seconds.