Team China brought their full squads into the final rounds, with Wu Peng taking first place in the men's event.
The fastest event in the Paris 2024 programme has taken one more step towards the completion of its qualification process, after the men’s and women’s Speed qualification rounds went down at the Olympic Qualifier Series Shanghai 2024.
The top 16 athletes in each event qualified for the finals, which will be contested in a knockout format.
Aleksandra Kalucka of Poland and Wu Peng of China placed at the top of the tables, respectively with 6.55 and 4.94 seconds. Along with Wu, the home team stacked the final rounds with climbers, as all eight Chinese participants – four women and four men – made the cut: Zhou Yafei, Niu Di, Wang Shengyan, and Zhang Shaoqin in the women’s event; Wu, Long Jianguo, Wang Xinshang, and Zhang Liang in the men’s one.
In the women’s event, Kalucka will be joined by her sister Aleksandra – fifth with 6.77 – while Team France and Team Indonesia will be represented by three athletes each: Capucine Viglione, Lison Gautron, and Manon Lebon for France; Narda Mutia Amanda, Rajiah Sallsabillah, and Nurul Iqamah for Indonesia.
“I am very happy, this is my first international competition this season, and it is cool to be in the final. I am happy with my performance,” said Lebon at the end of the round.
“I was a little bit nervous before the start of the competition, but after practice I was okay. I can’t wait to compete in the final tomorrow, in this beautiful place and in front of all these people.”
For the women’s Speed qualification complete results click here.
Joining Wu below the 5-second mark were Indonesian speedsters Veddriq Leonardo and Kiromal Katibin, who stopped the clock at 4.95 and 4.99 respectively. Their teammated Raharjati Nursamsa and Aspar Aspar also made it into the top 16.
The only other team with China and Indonesia bringing more than one climber into the men’s final will be Ukraine, after Yaroslav Tkach and Hrihorii Ilchyshyn took 13th and 15th positions.
Tkach said: “Physically and mentally, I feel good, in perfect condition. The most difficult part was to get into the top 16, after that you just need to do clean rounds in the final. The wall is super good, very fast, a lot of athletes made their personal bests today.”
For the men’s Speed qualification complete results click here.
Speed events at the Olympic Qualifier Series Shanghai 2024 will conclude tomorrow with the men’s and women’s final starting at 17:00 (UTC+8:00)
The Olympic Qualifier Series is composed of two legs, the first one in Shanghai from 16 to 19 May, and the second one in Budapest, Hungary, from 20 to 23 June. Every competition round at the OQS will be streamed live on Olympics.com.
News and updates about the event will be available on the IFSC website and on the Federation’s digital channels: Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, and exclusively for the Chinese audience, Douyin and Weibo.
For a comprehensive list of quotes from the event click here.