<
>

Olympics 2024: Team GB's Toby Roberts wins climbing gold

play
Toby Roberts ready to celebrate winning gold in men's boulder and lead final (0:42)

Great Britain's Toby Roberts speaks after winning gold in the men's boulder and lead final. (0:42)

Team GB's Toby Roberts climbed to the gold medal in the men's boulder and lead final on Friday while British teammate Hamish McArthur missed out on the podium.

The 19-year-old, known as "The Terminator," finished the boulder final in third place before a huge climb in the final round landed him in the top spot.

This was Team GB's 14th gold medal of the Games and their first ever in climbing.

The gold for Roberts was four years in the making after his dad built a climbing wall in their garden during the 2020 lockdown to aid his Olympic training.

"I'm just absolutely lost for words to find out I had the gold in that moment was truly incredible," the teenager said on BBC.

"I've been training for this moment my whole life. I don't know what to think right now. I guess there will be a flood of emotions later on."

Japan's Sorato Anraku took the silver medal despite being the favourite to win going into the final. The 17-year-old finished the boulder round in the top spot but a fall in the lead round landed him in fifth position to take second place overall.

Sport climbing made its second Olympic appearance but the Paris Games are the first where the combined boulder and lead event has been split from speed climbing.

In boulder, athletes have a time limit to negotiate four boulder "problems" on a 4.5-metre-high wall, earning points on the highest scoring holds they manage. In lead, they aim to climb a never-before-seen 15-metre wall as high as possible in a single attempt.

Information from Reuters was taken for this report