Sam Watson breaks world record in speed climbing twice in one day
Olympic bronze medalist Sam Watson broke his own world record in speed climbing twice on Saturday.
Watson, 19, climbed a 15-meter wall in 4.67 seconds in the semifinals and then 4.64 seconds in the final of a World Cup in Indonesia.
His opponent in the final false-started, handing the title to Watson, but the American was still motivated to chase another fast time alone.
'NFL players do the two-minute drill where they do a simulation of going through processes,' Watson said, according to the International Federation of Sport Climbing, 'and if I want to break a PB in practice I will do the same. I pretend I win gold, my opponent false started, and I just want to give the crowd one more run, especially this crowd in here in Bali. Everything just went right.'
Watson's previous world record was 4.74 seconds from the Olympic bronze-medal final in Paris.
In all, he has broken the world record six times in the last 13 months, bringing it down from 4.90 to 4.64 seconds.
Earlier this spring, Watson said, 'I know the world record will continue to be broken from my perspective, I don't control what the other athletes do, but I've put a lot of work in through the offseason and I'm ready to push the times down.'
In speed climbing, athletes go head-to-head, scaling identical walls as fast as they can. All top-level IFSC 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.
SAM WATSON DESTROYED THE MEN'S SPEED WORLD RECORD TWICE IN BALI!!
The US-climber 🇺🇸 won his semi-final race with 4.67 seconds, then setting a new mark in the race for gold with 4.64!! @USAClimbing @TeamUSA | #WorldClimbing pic.twitter.com/Ms8yiuS00d
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