Asian Games 2023 sport climbing: Indonesia win women's speed gold but miss out in men's event
Desak Made Rita Dewi wins women's gold, setting a new Asian record, as IR Iran's Reza Alipour successfully defends his Asian Games title
Sport Climbing
Indonesia celebrated three medals in the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou individual speed climbing events on Tuesday (3 October) in Shaoxing, People's Republic of China.
Top qualifier and hot favourite Desak Made Rita Dewi broke home hearts – and the Asian record – en route to gold, defeating the hosts' Niu Di in the semi-finals and Deng Lijuan in the final.
Dewi clocked in at a blistering 6.364 seconds in the final, taking down Deng's old mark of 6.47 seconds while also defeating the unlucky Chinese climber.
Deng had appeared to have the better start up the 15-metre-high speed wall, but despite keeping pace with her rival was barely out-touched. Deng's own time of 6.435 would also have beaten her previous best mark.
"I'm very happy to win at my first Asian Games," Dewi said afterwards, before revealing: "I was unwell for about a week just before coming to Hangzhou.
"So I see my achievement here as outstanding."
Earlier, Dewi's teammate Rajiah Sallsabillah took bronze in 6.879 seconds after Niu suffered an early fall in the bronze-medal final.
However, there was some disappointment for the men, as despite having the current and previous world record holders in Veddriq Leonardo and Kiromal Katibin, both men were knocked out before the final.
Consolation was to be found in Leonardo's bronze medal and new Asian Games record, defeating China's Wu Peng in 4.955 seconds. In reality, Leonardo was lucky to have even made it that far – he slipped early in his round of 16 match-up, but still recovered to post a winning time.
The final was a clash between home favourite Long Jinbao and the man who held the world record from 2017 to 2021 when Katibin broke it, Islamic Republic of Iran's Reza Alipour Shenazandifard.
Alipour, the defending champion, scaled the wall in the final in 5.302 seconds – but without challenge, as Long fell early on to provide an anti-climax for the eager home fans.
"I will try for the Olympic gold medal, but I don’t know for Paris 2024 because Veddriq is so hard (to beat)," Alipour said. "The way he is climbing, it is maybe impossible, but maybe possible. I’m 50-50."