China’s Long Jianguo quietly moved through a noisy field of Speed climbers to take his first ever World Championships title.

While others looked for the bright lights and crowd adulation, Long flew somewhat under the radar in Seoul to win gold in the men’s Speed, and only the second World Championships title for his country.

Qualifying for finals in third, Long was behind the two Americans Zach Hammer and world record holder Sam Watson. But Long focused on his racing and moved from round to round until he hit the final timing pad for his win in a show of consistency with every race under five seconds.

Long couldn’t have asked for more from a competition. Every single round he got quicker and quicker culminating in a gold medal race win against Germany’s Leander Carmanns – 4.80s to 4.99s.

After his win Long said: “I’m really happy and excited to be the champion, but honestly, I didn’t think that I could get to the podium, I just wanted to do my best and climb the way I wanted to.

“The podium means the same to everyone, everyone wants to aim for it. But I was a bit more lucky than my opponents today, and it means a lot that I could get there and win.”

Luck or simple race craft, Long won and will celebrate the same way he raced, simply: “I just want to celebrate with my team as they are so supportive, and it means a lot to everyone.”

Although beaten in the gold medal race, Carmanns still claimed the silver by reaching that stage for a first ever Speed World Championships medal for his country. The German climber also set a new personal best time of 4.86s along the way in the round of 16.

To set up their final, Long beat Iran’s Reza Alipour Shenazandifard in the semi-final and Carmanns beat USA’s Zach Hammer who had looked good until a fall in his semi-final.

With Alipour Shenazandifard and Hammer beaten semi-finalists, they faced off in the bronze medal race and produced the closest race of all with Hammer taking the bronze with a time of 4.93s to Alipour Shenazandifard’s 4.94s.

Hammer’s bronze meant that all three on the men’s Speed podium were first time World Championships medallists.

Full men's Speed results can be found here

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