The second day of Speed climbing brought another downpour of records with Sam Watson leading the way with a new world’s best for the men.
 
Once again the Le Bourget crowd was treated to a Speed bonanza as personal bests, continental records, Olympic records and the world record was broken at Paris 2024.
 
Starting with qualification seeding Indonesia’s Rahmad Adi Mulyono was the first to lower the Olympic record to 5.07s. Not to be outdone, teammate Veddriq Leonardo went even quicker to lower the record to 4.92s. World record holder Sam Watson of the USA went 4.91s before Kazakhstan’s Amir Maimuratov scored a PB and Olympic record of 4.89s. That was just the first set of runs!
 
On the second runs Italy’s Matteo Zurloni went 4.94s for a PB and new European record. Leonardo once again got quicker equalling the world record of 4.79s for a PB, Asian record and yet another Olympic record. 
 
With all the seeding done it was on to elimination racing to find the top eight for finals. There were some unfavourable matchups from a country perspective as the two Indonesians had to face off, as did the Americans Watson and teammate Zachary Hammer – which meant slimmer chances of multiple finalists for each nation.
 
Leonardo made it through the battle of the Indonesians and Watson made it through in the USA battle – and in a new world record, Olympic record and Pan American record of 4.75s.
 
On setting the record Watson said: "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.

"In my second qualifying run I got really close, just a tiny slip, but probably one of the faster 10m ever run. 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."

Talking specifically about the wall he said*:** "*There's elements that go into the wall feeling fast. The organisers have done an incredible job at putting us into the best possible situations.

"The warm-up was great. Having a wall behind the wall really helped. My coaches have got me into the best physical shape possible and they've really not cut any corners with getting this event to be perfect."

Maimuratov came through against South Africa’s Joshua Bruyns, and even before the competition had started he predicted records would tumble with the favourable friction of the Paris 2024 wall. After the racing he said: “It’s a fast wall and even I got a record in my second attempt. I did a mistake in the elimination round, but it was still a good time and I made it through, so I’m feeling like I’m in my prime right now, and I will be even better in finals.”
 
Zurloni beat China’s Long Jinbao to make finals with Long’s teammate Wu Peng making it through against South Korea’s Shin Euncheol. 
 
The next race was an important one. New Zealand’s Julian David had lowered the Oceania record with a PB of 5.24s in seeding. In the elimination he lowered it to 5.20s against Iran’s Reza Alipour Shenazandifard to progress. Despite the loss Alipour Shenazandifard made the finals as the ‘fastest loser’ with a time of 5.06s.
 
Talking about his competition David said: “I’m pretty stoked. It’s a phenomenal feeling. My goal was to get a PB, and I did that, and thankfully it got me through to the finals which is a bonus, so yeah I’m pretty happy with that.”
 
Describing the feeling of his elimination win David said: “It’s so hard to describe, but the adrenaline rush you get from it is pretty incredible. The crowd as well was phenomenal and when you hear their reaction you think wow, yeah, I’ve done it you know. I’m up here with the big dogs now.”
 
The New Zealand team have felt a lot of support and even have a flag emblazoned with messages from supporters back home, and talking about that David said: “It’s great to know that all the people and kids watching back home, all these messages on my flag they gave to us when we got our kit are from them. I’ve been in their position so I’m super grateful I get to show them how it’s done and that they can do it as well is phenomenal.”
 
The last race of the day was France’s Bassa Mawem and Ukraine’s Yaroslav Tkach. Every time Mawem appeared on stage the decibel levels went through the roof from the French crowd, and they went even higher when he won by 0.01s with a PB time of 5.16s compared to Tkach’s 5.17s. 
 
Mawem has indicated a retirement from competition after the Olympics, the champagne is on ice and the party is postponed for now, much to the delight of the roaring French public – including Bassa’s brother Mickael, the Boulder world champion who was in the venue to watch.
 
The men’s Speed finals will take place on Thursday 8 August.

The Speed action took place after the Boulder round of the women’s Boulder & Lead semi-finals, and it was the Olympic champion Janja Garnbret who is showing the kind of form that won her that Tokyo 2020 gold.
 
The only climber to top all Boulders, Garnbret finished the day with a score of 99.6 out of a possible 100.
 
The French crowd were happy to see Oriane Bertone near the top of the standings, sitting in second with 84.5pts.
 
Bertone, USA’s Brooke Raboutou in third and Australia’s Oceania Mackenzie in fourth all topped three problems with Mackenzie the first to make it past the 5pt mark on the first Boulder. She topped it on the first go.
 
Mackenzie said: “It was my style, I quite like physical Boulders, but I came out feeling very confident and determined knowing it was going to be the powerful Boulder and so actually not so bad for me and to execute and flash it was very exciting.
 
“After that I was feeling so good. Getting that out of the way was amazing, I was feeling good, listening to some good music and feeling really good.
 
“I’m excited for Lead because I’ve put in some good work into my Lead climbing this season, so I’m just really looking forward to it.”
 
From USA’s Natalia Grossman in fifth down to Japan’s Mori Ai in 11^th, all topped one Boulder, including Mori’s teammate Nonaka Miho who said: “I think I had a great start. I really wanted to do the slab though because I’m not good and I’ve been working on it and really wanted to do it, but unfortunately I couldn’t do it in the five minutes here.”
 
With an Olympic medal already and at her second Games Nonaka described the differences she feels in the two editions: “The two Olympics have been totally different. There was no crowd in Tokyo, I wish there was, because it’s been amazing here. I could hear everyone; the Japanese in the crowd were cheering for me, and I really enjoyed the atmosphere.”
 
The women’s Boulder & Lead competition continues on Thursday 8 August where the finalists will be decided after the Lead round of the semi-final.

Full results can be found on the IFSC website homepage: https://www.ifsc-climbing.org