Don't blink or you will miss it. The vertical "100m sprint" has gone viral in Paris as Chinese speed climber Deng Lijuan delivered the country's first Olympic medal in the sport after a thrilling women's final.
The pressure kicked in, the frenetic crowd quieted down and, within a split second, the starting beep spurred two climbers to leap onto a 15-meter-high wall. They sprinted up the hold-studded route with hands and feet as fast as "spiderwomen" to slap the touch pad almost simultaneously before the spectators even caught their next breath.
It was sport climbing in its most captivating format, and Deng rose to the occasion to bring home a historic silver medal after narrowly losing to Poland's world record holder Aleksandra Miroslaw by a mere 0.08-second margin.
"I am really satisfied with my performance today. This event is all about challenging yourself constantly and I am so happy to see that I've improved a lot at this Olympic stage," said Deng, who touched in at 6.18 seconds, setting a new Asian record in the final at the Le Bourget Climbing Venue in northern Paris.
The speed discipline involves two climbers ascending the same routes on a wall to finish first by touching the pad in a timed one-on-one knockout format that leaves no room for even the slightest missteps.
It was the first Olympic sport climbing medal that Chinese athletes have won across two disciplines - speed and the combined boulder and lead - since the sport was first introduced to the official medal program at Tokyo 2020 as part of the International Olympic Committee's effort to bring more urban and youth dynamics to the Games.
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