KALUCKA AND ADI TAKE POLAND AND INDONESIA ATOP THE SPEED KNOCKOUT PODIUM

Aleksandra Kalucka of Poland and Rahmad Adi of Indonesia marked their name in the history of Sport Climbing, becoming the first winners ever of the IFSC Connected Speed Knockout presented by Japan Airlines.

The two talented Speed climbers respectively bested Elizaveta Ivanova of Russia and Gianluca Zodda of Italy in the race for the gold medal, with Kalucka tapping the finish pad at 7,460" and Adi recording an impressive 5,770". The women's podium was completed by Italy's Giulia Randi, who beat Russia's Iuliia Kaplina in the small final; Kaplina's teammate Vladislav Deulin prevailed in the men's race for the bronze medal, beating his teammate Dmitrii Timofeev.

Adi also marked the best time at the end of the qualification round - stopping the clock at 5,762" - and climbed his way through the gold medal race by prevailing over his own teammates Aspar Jaelolo and Alfian Muhammad, along with Deulin. In the women's ranking, instead, Kalucka finished 2nd behind Kaplina, besting Russia's Darya Kan, Indonesia Nurul Iqomah and Giulia Randi on her way to the final.

Aleksandra Kalucka said:

"This new format was strange for me because my emotions were between competition and training mode. It was also fun to have to wait for the results."

Rahmad Adi said:

"I’m very happy because this is the first competition of the year during the pandemic. This is a very good competition format for both myself and the Indonesian team. It’s special for me."

The event was streamed as-live on Facebook and YouTube, and on August 3 will stream on Weibo, one of the two Chinese platforms that the IFSC recently landed on.

Athletes from Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Poland and Russia competed in the initial qualification round, while the final phase of the event followed the same knockout pattern as a regular Speed World Cup.

Among the athletes that competed in the inaugural edition of the IFSC Connected Speed Knockout presented by Japan Airlines, France’s Olympic qualified athlete Mickael Mawem, Indonesia’s two-time World Cup gold medallist Alfian Muhammad and six-time World Cup medallist Aspar Jaelolo, Italy’s reigning Speed World Champion Ludovico Fossali, Aleksandra Kalucka's twin sister Natalia – who won the Speed Youth World Championship in2018, and Russia’s Olympic qualified athlete Julia Kaplina and 2016 Speed World Champion Anna Tsyganova.

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