Veddriq Leonardo won Indonesia's first gold medal of the Paris Olympics after edging China's Wu Peng in sport climbing men's speed big final on Thursday.

Sam Watson of the United States took bronze in a world record time of 4.74 seconds.

Leonardo clocked a personal best of 4.75 seconds in the big final, 0.02 seconds faster than Wu, who eliminated world record holder Watson in the semifinals by a margin of 0.08 seconds.

"I feel very happy, I feel very joyful to bring the first gold medal for Indonesia at Paris 2024 to my country," Leonardo said.

Leonardo advanced smoothly to the final, defeating 39-year-old Bassa Mawem of France and then Reza Alipour of Iran along the way.

Wu, however, faced much closer matches. In the quarterfinals, he secured the narrowest win of the day, edging out reigning world champion Matteo Zurloni of Italy by just 0.002 seconds. He then survived another tight contest against Watson before ultimately falling short in the final.

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