Veddriq Leonardo – Indonesia

SHANGHAI – Comments from Indonesia’s Veddriq Leonardo after he finished first in the Men’s Sport Climbing Speed at the OQS Shanghai on Saturday.

Veddriq Leonardo – Indonesia

On taking a big step towards qualifying for the Paris 2024 Games:

“I am happy. I have to qualify, so this is like the first step.

“In speed climbing even though you did well in practice it doesn’t guarantee you a good result in competition."

On beating a strong field:

“I am very happy I am competing among the best competitors and the best athletes in the world. The more good athletes there are in speed climbing, the better it is for the sport.

“I only focus on myself and my performance.”

On the fierce competition within the Indonesia team for the two possible Paris 2024 spots:

“We have a very good relationship. We are like family. We train together. In this competition each of us tries to do our best and it’s our responsibility to bring the country’s name to the world level.

“(Competing against each other) is not a problem.”

On Paris 2024 being a golden opportunity to promote Indonesia to the world:

“What we focus on is to bring Indonesia’s name to the world level and we focus to make Indonesia better in Paris.

“It’s very exciting because Tokyo 2020 it was the combined (only) so Indonesia had no chance to get an Olympic (medal).

“It is not only to compete for the sake of the competition, it is also my responsibility as an Indonesian to bring Indonesia into the Olympics and bring a gold medal. And to tell everyone Indonesia is friendly, kind and fun.

“It would be really good for Indonesia and we are optimistic.”

On why he thinks Indonesia has so many top speed climbers:

“We have a big number of speed climbers. Speed climbing doesn’t need a lot of big facilities and it is very easy to set up.

“And we also have an inspirational figure like (fellow climber) Aspar (Aspar) who has been in the field so long and still doing it. So we can see it.”

OIS ln/tb/wc