American Zach Hammer capped a breakout season in speed climbing by winning bronze at the World Championships in Seoul on Thursday.
Hammer, a 19-year-old who made his Olympic debut in Paris, edged Reza Alipour of Iran 4.932 seconds to 4.948 in the bronze-medal matchup.
China’s Long Jianguo won the gold-medal matchup — 4.809 to 4.998 over German Leander Carmanns.
Earlier, Hammer topped qualifying with a personal best of 4.809, a time that would have been the world record up until April 2024.
Also this season, Hammer made his first World Cup podiums with a second-place finish in Denver in June and a third-place finish in Chamonix, France, in July.
At the Paris Olympics, Hammer was eliminated with a fall in his qualifying matchup with countryman Sam Watson, who broke the world record in the same heat.
Three Americans made Thursday’s quarterfinals. Watson, who this season lowered his own world record to 4.64 seconds, slipped in his quarterfinal, one year after taking Olympic bronze. Michael Hom was edged by Carmanns, 4.98 to 4.94.
Olympic gold medalist Veddriq Leonardo of Indonesia was not in the field.
Sport climbing worlds continue with men’s and women’s lead finals on Friday, women’s boulder finals Saturday and men’s boulder finals Sunday.
In speed climbing, athletes go head-to-head, scaling identical walls as fast as they can. All top-level competitions have identical holds along the wall, allowing for world records in the event.
A standardized 15-meter wall was introduced in 2011, when Qixin Zhong of China set the first world record of 6.26 seconds.
Sport climbing debuted at the Olympics in Tokyo with one event combining the bouldering, lead and speed disciplines.
In Paris, there were two events: a combined event for bouldering and lead and a separate speed event.
At the 2028 Los Angeles Games, there will be three separate events for bouldering, lead and speed.
