Joe McConnell
Teenage sports climber Toby Roberts has won Britain’s 14th gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics after winning the men’s bouldering and lead events.
Roberts, 19, scored 155.2 points to beat favorite Sorato Anraku of Japan, who lost his grip and fell; he needed just 86 points on the lead wall to relegate Roberts to the silver medal.
Austria’s Jakob Schubert took bronze, while another Briton, Hamish McArthur, finished fifth.
Roberts, nicknamed “Terminator” for his determination, told the BBC: “I’m completely speechless. Finding out I had won gold at that moment was truly incredible.
“I’ve been training for this moment my whole life, and now I’ve just won it. To say I haven’t figured it out yet is an understatement.
“I don’t really know what to think right now, but I imagine it’ll just be a wave of emotions later on. It’s something I’ve been training for for 10 years, basically. There are no words.”
Roberts added: “Finding out that I won Olympic gold is definitely a shock. It was a rush of adrenaline, emotion and then happiness.
“I hope this makes climbing bigger and bigger. The sport is growing in the UK with climbing gyms opening, and it’s so great to see climbing on this big stage.”
KJT still has a chance to win Olympic gold
At the Stade de France, Katarina Johnson-Thompson lost first place in the heptathlon to Nafissatou Thiam ahead of Friday evening’s final event, the 800m, which starts at 19.25 BST.
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Vscek’ Miriam Walker-Khan explains what Katarina Johnson-Thompson needs to do to win Olympic heptathlon gold
The reigning world champion began the second day in contention for the gold medal and maintained his position with a leap of 6.40 meters in the long jump.
However, Johnson-Thompson was overtaken by two-time Olympic champion Thiam in the javelin throw: the Belgian threw 54.04 m and Johnson-Thompson 45.49 m.
The Briton now trails Thiam by 121 points and will need to beat her rival by around eight seconds to win the gold medal in Paris.
Johnson-Thompson’s best time in the 800 meters is 2:05.63, just over six seconds better than Thiam’s 2:11.79.
Vscek+ has officially launched and will be integrated into Sky TV, the NOW streaming service and the Vscek app, giving Vscek customers access to over 50% more live sport this year, at no extra cost.
