Poland’s Aleksandra Miroslaw wrote more Speed climbing history today winning the first ever Speed climbing Olympic gold medal to accompany her new world’s best time from qualification.

With a world record 6.06s from qualification on Monday, Miroslaw had the pressure of taking that form through to a gold medal at Paris 2024, and she delivered to the packed-out crowd in Le Bourget.

Miroslaw made her way through the quarter-final against Spain’s Leslie Romero Perez and semi-final against teammate Aleksandra Kalucka to set up a gold medal finale against China’s Deng Lijuan.

Deng progressed to the final race with a very tight quarter-final win against world champion Desak Dewi from Indonesia – 6.363 compared to 6.369, both PB’s – and semi-final against another Indonesian, Rajiah Sallsabillah.

In the final Miroslaw posted a 6.10s to beat Deng who had to settle for silver with a time of 6.18s - which two days ago would have been a world record, but was a PB and new Asian record for the Chinese climber.

On winning gold Miroslaw said: "It means a lot. It’s like the first time for the Speed climbing and also for me here in the discipline, and I have my flag, and I was standing on the podium on the first place (stage) hearing the national anthem. It was amazing."

With her silver, Deng said: "At the end of my climb I saw the numbers, I didn't feel anything. I only knew that it was over. I realised it was my personal best. I'm a calm person, which is very good for this sport.

"I'm very proud that I could take the first Olympic medal in the sport for Chinese climbing. I'm grateful that the people and the country are always behind me."

Fighting for bronze were the beaten semi-finalists Sallsabillah and Kalucka, and it was to be two Polish medallists as Kalucka won bronze in a time of 6.53s compared to 8.24s for Sallsabillah who slipped on the wall.

On winning bronze Kalucka said: "I was so happy and I couldn't believe that I just won (the) bronze medal. I'm super happy and proud of myself that I did it."

Despite losing out on a medal, Sallsabillah did lower her PB twice in the finals – first to 6.54s and then to 6.41s.

In the men’s Boulder & Lead, the final eight still in with a shot of an Olympic medal have been decided following the Lead round of the semi-final.

Japan’s Anraku Sorato progressed to the final in the top spot after a 68.1pt climb on the Lead route to add to his 69.0pts from Boulder – in which he finished top. His total overall was 137.1pts.

On his performance Anraku said: "I could move steady to move up and that was a good thing that I could do today. But I think (at) the middle point, I still had energy, but I couldn’t get the body to move up.”

Talking about his confidence level for the finals after finishing first in the semifinals he said: “I have the confidence but I don’t want to be too confident because I can be first in the semifinal, and then I could not be first in the final.

"I try not to think about whatever happened today, only improve on it, and I’m really focussed on the final."

Also with 68.1pts was Great Britain’s Toby Roberts and Czechia’s Adam Ondra. Roberts finished in second overall with a total of 122.2pts and Ondra third with 116.8pts.

The best Lead climb of the day was from current Olympic champion, Spain’s Alberto Gines Lopez who scored 72pts. That moved him up from a low position after Boulder, and as he was one of the earlier climbers he had to sit, wait, and watch to find out if he would make it through.

Straight off the wall and talking about the climb Gines Lopez said: “It was pretty nice. More intense and harder than I expected.

“For me, I’m a Lead specialist, so I already suffered in Boulder the other day. So today it was time for the Boulder to suffer in Lead.

"Usually, at least for me, with this scoring system we have in the Olympics, it will be easier to score more points. Hopefully, it will be enough for finals.”

It was enough for the final and he remains in with a chance to retain his Olympic title with a total semi-final score of 100.7pts.

Another Olympic medallist and Boulder & Lead world champion Jakob Schubert of Austria is still also in with a chance of upgrading his bronze from Tokyo 2020 after a 54.1pt climb gave him a total of 98.8pts for fifth.

French interest is still alive with Paul Jenft making the final in sixth position. A 57.0pt climb gave him a total of 91.1pts.

The last two climbers to feature in the final will be USA’s Colin Duffy and Great Britain’s Hamish McArthur. A 54.1pt Lead climb gave Duffy a total of 87.9pts for seventh and a 45.1pt climb for McArthur gave him a total of 79.3pts for eighth.

Germany’s Yannick Flohe missed out in ninth position with 68.8pts.

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