China edges defending champions to achieve gold double in speed climbing relays

Team China attend the awarding ceremony for the Women's Speed Relay Match of Sports Climbing at the 19th Asian Games in Shaoxing, east China's Zhejiang Province, Oct. 4, 2023. (Xinhua/Yang Guanyu)

HANGZHOU, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- After settling for two silvers on the opening day of sport climbing, China outran Indonesia in both men's and women's speed relay finals to clinch a gold double at the Hangzhou Asian Games here on Wednesday.

The victories also marked the first time for China to win an Asiad title.

In the men's event, the Chinese trio of Wu Peng, Wang Xinshang and Zhang Liang eliminated Thailand and Singapore before meeting the defending champion Indonesia in the final. The long-time rivals went neck-and-neck before Indonesians gradually gained an advantage by the end of the second climb.

Zhang Liang and Kiromal Katibin, the last climbers of China and Indonesia respectively, pushed the hardest as they could to the top of the wall, but Indonesians had then been disqualified for a false start committed by Katibin.

"I didn't see that and just kept climbing. I went up as fast as I could," Zhang recalled the dramatic moment after the race. "This is a team win, we are not affected by the loss yesterday and focus on what needs to be done on the wall," he added.

Katibin, who also missed the podium on Tuesday, said that he was so eager for a win but lost the focus when starting off.

The women's relay also saw a comeback from China as Deng Lijuan, the silver medalist of the women's speed, stormed up to overtake her rival in the second climb. The hosts grabbed their second gold after Niu Di, the third climber of China, flew high in the air and clocked the win in 20.925 seconds.

"I was so nervous before this race as I made mistakes yesterday," said Niu. "Our team is great, and I managed to hold off the comeback from the last Indonesian girl, going all out there to top the wall," she added.

Coach of the Chinese speed climbing team Zhong Qixin, the silver medalist at the Jakarta Asiad, regarded the Indonesian team as the stronger one compared to China. "But in speed climbing, the fastest may not always win. We are the more stable one today," he said.

South Korea took bronze in both men's and women's relays.