The time recorded by the 16th best climber in any Speed qualification round is often used as an indicator of how fast that competition is. Based on this indicator, the IFSC World Cup Wujiang 2025 was the fastest Speed competition of all time, as the men’s cut was set at 5.16 seconds, and the women’s one at 7.11.

Breaking his own personal best in Wujiang, China, to break into the men’s round of 16 was Germany’s Sebastian Lucke, who ran 5.20 and 5.11 to place 10th in qualification.

Lucke, a 22-year-old from Düsseldorf, is one of the many athletes that traveled from China  to Bali, Indonesia, and is registered to compete in one of the most anticipated events of the past few years.

“It feels amazing to be here!” he said. “Coming to Bali was a dream since I heard that it was planned a few years ago. Now that it’s happening, it’s just amazing! I am really looking forward for some sweaty hours of Speed Climbing!”

Lucke also commented on the trend that currently sees personal, national and many other records being broken at a fast pace: “I am quite sure this trend will continue. All of these guys are training incredibly hard, the times are dropping, and we just had the fastest World Cup ever! Everyone wants to add his name to the list of sub-5 climbers, so nobody is giving anything away! So for sure we will see a lot more personal records this year, and world records too.”

Despite having just set a new PB, Lucke has no intention of slowing down.

“Here in Bali I just want to continue my good work and keep my joyful spirit, enjoying being in this grid, giving my best and trying to add another final to my list. While regarding the season, I really want to push in the top-16 to gain a regular spot in the final and start climbing consistently and to win some races there,” he concluded.

Climbing on home turf, Paris 2024 gold medallist Veddriq Leonardo will be part of a large Indonesian team that will also feature Kiromal Katibin – bronze medal winner at Wujiang 2025 – and Raharjati Nursamsa – World Cup gold medallist at Jakarta 2023.

In the women’s event, Olympic champion Aleksandra Miroslaw of Poland will try to jump back on the World Cup podium after placing sixth in the season opener. Paris 2024 Olympians Emma Hunt and Piper Kelly of the USA will also be in the mix.

SCHEDULE

The schedule of Speed medal events in Bali is as follows:

Saturday, 3 May (UTC+8:00):
11:00 – Speed qualifications
15:00 – Speed finals

News and updates about the event will be available on the IFSC website and on the Federation’s digital channels: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, and exclusively for the Chinese audience, Douyin, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu.