TWO Indonesian wall climbers, Desak Made Rita Kusuma Dewi and Rajiah Salsabilah, have qualified for the quarter-finals of the speed event in the Sport Climbing branch of the 2024 Paris Olympics. In the last 8 round held on Friday (7/8), Desak Made Rita Kusuma Dewi faced Chinese athlete Lijuan Deng, while Rajiah Salsabilah faced Emma Hunt from the United States.
In the qualifying round, Wednesday (5/8), Made and Fajiah Salsabila were in sixth and seventh place respectively. Made recorded a time of 6.52 seconds in lane A and 6.45 seconds in Lane B.
Meanwhile, Rajiah recorded a time of 6.67 seconds (Lane A) and 6.58 (Lane B). According to the race rules, the fastest time from each Lane is counted to determine the ranking of each participant to qualify for the next phase.
Meanwhile, the first place was won by Polish athlete, Aleksandra Miroslaw, the world and Olympic record holder at the same time. The 30-year-old athlete even managed to improve her previous world record of 6.24 seconds which she created in Rome, to 6.06 seconds.
Another Polish athlete, Aleksandra Kalucka, finished third with a best time of 6.38 seconds, while second place went to American climber Emma Hunt (6.36 seconds). Fifth and sixth places were taken by Chinese athletes Yafei Zhou (6.38 seconds) and Lijuan Deng (6.40 seconds), respectively.
The speed qualifying round was attended by 14 athletes. They were then ranked based on their fastest time to appear in the elimination round.
Also read: Raji’ah Sallsabilah, Indonesia’s Young Rock Climbing Star, Ready to Perform at the 2024 Paris Olympics
In the elimination round, the top-ranked athlete faces the bottom-ranked athlete (1 vs 14), while the second-ranked athlete faces the 13th-ranked athlete, and so on. The seven winners advance to the quarterfinals. One more is taken from the top eight or those with the fastest times.
In the elimination round, Desak Made managed to beat his opponent who was ranked 9th, Piper Kelly (United States). Made recorded a time of 6.38 seconds, while his opponent recorded 8.43 seconds.
Meanwhile, Fajiah, despite falling when facing Leslie Adriana Peres from Spain, still qualified based on her time according to the competition regulations. (Z-2)
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