Speed Climbing records shattered in Seoul Opener
- Sunday 30th April 2023
The first Speed Climbing competition of the 2023 season in Seoul saw multiple records broken in a remarkable day of climbing.
Taking the gold medals, Poland’s Aleksandra Miroslaw and Indonesia’s Veddriq Leonardo both broke the women’s and men’s world records respectively on multiple occasions during the Seoul competition.
During the competition world record holder Aleksandra Miroslaw lowered her previous world record of 6.53secs no less than four times. Her two qualification runs ended with a 6.37 and 6.46secs respectively and then during the semi’s she went faster again with a 6.35secs run. However, Miroslaw finished the finals and the day with yet another world record – 6.25secs – to go with her gold medal. Knocking nearly 1/3rd second off a world record is remarkable but to do so on the opening competition of the year with such a consistently fast times is outstanding.
The men’s winner Veddriq Leonardo opened the day with 4.98secs; the first ever recorded sub 5secs run in history and a new world record. However, Leonardo dropped that time down to 4.90secs in the quarter-final although he eased back for the semi’s with 4.93secs and 5.01secs was fast enough to take the gold medal.
Team GB was represented in the competition by Rafe Stokes; Rafe finished in 29th place overall – his best ever finish - with a new British Speed Record of 5.64secs in qualification.
The next Speed competition will be in Jakarta in next weekend, May 6th & 7th.
Watch the highlights from the Seoul final below…