In an incredible start to the latest IFSC World Cup event, two Speed Climbing World Records just got broken back to back. Kiromal Katibin of Indonesia and Aleksandra Miroslaw of Poland both set new records in their categories.
This is only the first day of the competition and both climbers Both Kiromal and Aleksandra have held Speed Climbing world records previously. In the finals, Aleksandra beat out Emma Hunt of the USA. It was Veddriq Leonardo who took the win over teammate Kiromal.
The latest IFSC World Cup event is being held in Seoul, Korea right now and marks the first in the country since the start of the pandemic. It’s only the second event of this year’s lineup and the first event to feature Speed Climbing.
Aleksandra Miroslaw Beats Her Own Record!
Aleksandra Miroslaw held the previous Speed Climbing world record of 6.84 seconds, which was set in incredible fashion at the finals of the 2020 Olympics Sport Climbing event. Today in the qualification round she pulled off an amazing 6.648 seconds in her first attempt!
The Polish climber is at the head of the pack in Speed Climbing right now. She managed two sub-7-seconds runs in qualifications, something no other climber got near. She did the same in half finals and the finals, the fastest of others in the entire final round was 7.17 by Aleksandra Kaalucka.
Another Indonesian Speed Record Set!
Kiromal Katibin shot off of the plate in his first qualification run, with an amazing 5.17 seconds. He beats his teammate Veddriq Leonardo’s time of 5.208. They both faced off in the finals where Veddriq won with 6.96 as Kiromal fell.
The Indonesian team is absolutely dedicated to Speed Climbing, and between Veddriq, Kiromal, and Aries Susanti Rahayu, they’ve set four Speed records in the past three years! In the Women’s qualifications in Seoul, 2nd to 4th place were all held by Indonesian women. In Men’s qualifications and finals, all three top places were from Indonesia.
The team has an improved path that skips more holds than other climbers. The idea of Speed Climbing is to go in as straight a line as possible to avoid slowing down. They also use the Tomoa skip – which is jumping to a high start hold with the foot to push off instead of just using the hands.
Previous Men’s Speed Climbing Record – Indonesian Face-Off
The previous Men’s Speed Climbing world record was 5.208 and was set in the finals by Veddriq Leonardo in Salt Lake City in 2021. However, earlier in that event Kiromal actually beat the previous Speed Climbing world record, setting a pace of 5.258 in qualifications. They were head to head in the finals when Veddriq took it from him.
Before that, the record was 5.48 seconds. It was set in 2017 and held for five years by Reza Alipour Shenazandifard of Iran until Veddriq broke it by a full fifth of a second. The record is now edging closer and closer to the five-second barrier!
Tomorrow we’ll see qualification rounds for the Bouldering portion of the competition, and Sunday will hold the Boulder finals.
Photos by Dimitris Tosidis on behalf of the IFSC
