The IFSC Climbing World Cup in Denver, Colorado, USA, hosted competitors from around the world at the year's third Speed World Cup. Here’s what some of the top-performing athletes had to say following each round.

MEN'S SPEED FINALS

Kiromal Katibin (INA) - gold medallist

"I feel good, this is only my second World Cup gold, so I am happy. I want to say thank you to my coaches, my brother, my parents and everyone in Indonesia for the support.”

“I am feeling good and I believe in my training, so I want to continue to get strong and stay strong in my racing.”

Zach Hammer (USA) - silver medallist

"It feels amazing. I wouldn’t say unexpected because I have been working really hard for it and I was confident I could do it, but to have the medal finally around my neck is an amazing feeling.”

"When I walked out onto the stage for finals, I honestly don’t think I have had a larger crowd cheering for me at any competition so that really lit a fire in me.”

WOMEN'S SPEED FINALS

Emma Hunt (USA) - gold medallist

“Good, a little weird, but good. It’s weird because I only did three races to get the medal. I would have loved to have done all the races but that’s the weather.

“It was super cool to have had the chance to do a few laps in front of a home crowd, and I hope we can come back to Denver.”

MEN'S SPEED QUALIFICATION

Nasser Abu Ergeeb (KUW)

“I’m the first Arab to run under six seconds, and I really didn’t think this would happen. Thank you to my coach, Albert Ok, because he really made me believe in myself.”

Leander Carmanns (GER)

“Qualifiers went pretty well for me. I’m happy about my time. I pretty much started where I ended the last season, because it’s my first comp of the season. So, I’m happy to be through in seventh place and I’ll just try to enjoy the finals tomorrow.”

WOMEN'S SPEED QUALIFICATION

Piper Kelly (USA)

“It was the best qualification I ever had actually. IFSC PB’s in both practice and quali runs so I am super psyched to have such a good comp in front of my hometown crowd.

“I’m feeling really good, moving into finals in eighth I think, so in the top half and should have a little easier race first round, and I am excited to race again in front of this crowd.”

Leslie Adriana Romero Pérez (ESP)

“It was so-so. I feel good but I made some little mistakes so I’m not too happy with my round. But we will see tomorrow when the competition continues. We are here, and I’m happy.”

PRE EVENT

Andrea Rojas (ECU)

“After the OQS (Olympic Qualifier Series) last year I decided to take a break from comps to rediscover my inner passion for the sport. I was trying to reconnect with myself out of the competition environment."

“Honestly, I wanted to stop with Speed, but Albert Ok motivated me to try again, with a new way of training with him, so I gave it a go.”

“Chile organised the Pan American Championships in Santiago, so I had a new goal. We trained hard for it, I got injured, but I was able to compete, and I won.”

“I had to stop again for two, almost three, months because of my shoulder injury and again I didn’t know if it made sense to continue trying, but this time I wanted to be back and try to live this competition life in a better way. Little by little I got back into good shape and now I feel I am in my best shape ever.”

I have no expectations for this comp. I just want to enjoy the environment, adapt to the wall as best as I can and show my 100%.”

“These last two years I’ve been starting my career as a coach with a youth team in Milan, Italy. I studied sport science at university there and I love it!”

“Last summer my friend Valentina wanted to start training with someone new and asked me for help. I felt so honoured to try this new thing. We managed to balance our friendship and our coach-athlete relationship pretty well and she also managed to win the Lead competition at the Pan Ams the same day as me. It was super special!”

“It was so much more special because our wins happened one month after Valentina’s dad passed away. We had such a hard year, but we found strength in each other, and I was so proud of how she was able to compete and show her best.”

⁠I love that comps are in new places! Something that I really enjoy from this life is the possibility to discover new places and cultures from all the world."

“For sure competing in a big city like Denver makes the event special. I hope that we can show how fun our discipline is and inspire some people to climb too or try it for themselves.”

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