Zhao Yicheng beats Samuel Watson (Photo World Climbing)
The men’s Speed world record was broken in Wujiang as China’s Zhao Yicheng introduced himself in style with a World Climbing Series gold medal in his first competition at the level.
Yicheng beat former world record holder Sam Watson in a semi-final match-up in which he produced a 4.54s run for the new record which he held after breaking Watson’s time only last month.
USA’s Watson took a bronze medal and Yicheng’s teammate Jianguo Long won silver.
For the women, Aleksandra Kalucka returned after taking a self-imposed season off to take gold with Elizaveta Ivanova taking silver and Indonesia’s Desak Dewi taking bronze.
The Speed event was the quickest in history with the men’s final qualification cut off time 4.94s. The first 21 athletes all went under five seconds. The women needed 6.67s to make it into the final with position 28 under seven seconds – for perspective, the previous best cut off times for both were from Chamonix last year with the men at 5.09s and the women at 7.08s.
Japan’s Neo Suzuki and USA’s Annie Sanders won the Lead gold medals on offer in Wujiang with Sanders denying Slovenia’s Janja Garnbret her 50th win.
Sanders and Garnbret reached the same hold in the final but from a superior climb in the semi-final, Sanders won on countback while Garnbret had to settle for silver. South Korea’s Chaehyun Seo won the bronze.
Suzuki started eighth in the final after a disappointing semi-final by his standards, but the Japanese climber put that behind him to set the target for the rest to aim at – no one could surpass him.
Spain’s Alberto Ginés López won silver and South Korea’s Dohyun Lee won bronze.
The next World Climbing Series event will be in Bern, Switzerland on the 22-24 May with the Boulder discipline.
