Gold For A Decent Veddriq, Hard Practice To The Fog Of Karhutla Kalimantan

Veddriq Leonardo was the first athlete to win gold for Indonesia at the 2024 Paris Olympics (doc. NOC Indonesia).

JAKARTA - Veddriq Leonardo became the first athlete to present a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the men's rock climbing speed number.

The 27-year-old athlete defeated China's representative, Wu Peng, in the top party at Le Bourget Sport Climbing, Thursday, August 8, 2024, evening WIB.

Veddriq recorded a time of 4.75 seconds, only 0.02 seconds from Wu Peng (4.77 seconds).

Veddriq's struggle was not in vain. He indeed deserves to sing the anthem Indonesia Raya and see the Red and White flag flying the highest among the flags of other countries in rock climbing sports.

A persistent personality is the key to Veddriq's success being the best at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

"Since childhood, Veddriq has been a very persistent and steadfast child. If he says A, then it must be A," said Veddriq's mother, Rosita.

In fact, thanks to this persistence and firmness, Veddriq always trains hard every day, regardless of conditions. He faced every obstacle to being able to practice.

"Every day even when there was a forest fire in Kalimantan, he continued to train under the fog that filled the skies of Kalimantan," said Rosita again.

An additional gold medal from Veddriq brought Indonesia now up to 46th in the contingent rankings.

Indonesia has now packed a total medal. One previous medal was successfully secured by Gregoria Mariska Tunjung who won the women's singles badminton bronze.

Indonesia still has hopes in three other athletes to add medal coffers. The Red-White contingent leaves Bernard van Aert (cycling), Nurul Akmal (women's ironlifting +81 kg), and Rizki Juniansyah (Men's ironlifting 73 kg).