Roberts and McArthur make sport climbing debut with strong start

Sport Climbing 05 Aug 24

Toby Roberts and Hamish McArthur made fine starts to their Olympic debuts in sport climbing.

Third out of the 19 semi-finalists, McArthur became the first British man to represent Team GB in sport climbing at an Olympic Games, following on from Shauna Coxsey who was the first Brit to compete in the sport on its Olympic debut in Tokyo. 

McArthur initially topped the standings before dropping down to sit in eighth place with a score of 34.2 having tackled all four boulders, reaching the high zone on three out of four of them. 

Roberts was the third-to-last competitor to go but held his nerve to post the third-best score with 54.1, just 0.3 points off second. 

“It was good, I really enjoyed it,” Roberts said. “I was really psyched to get the last one.  “You have to keep your mind as you don’t know what other people are topping. It’s easy to think ‘I didn’t get that, maybe someone else did’.

“You just have to keep your head and process it as you go.

“I definitely felt a bit of pressure going out to the last boulder, I thought I might have to top it to be in a good place. I was able to calm down in the cool zone and put in a good performance.

“The scale of the crowd is just so much bigger than what I’m used to. Nothing beats climbing in front of a crowd like this, when they get behind you it’s amazing.

“My stronger (discipline) is lead, so I’m really excited. The first step is to get to the final and to do that I have to put a solid lead performance in. My focus is all on the next step.”

Roberts was the first British man to earn a quota spot for an Olympic Games when he won the European Qualifiers last year.

The 19-year-old impressed on debut, reaching the top of the fourth boulder wall to score 24.7, the second-highest score on that boulder during the semi-finals.

McArthur and Roberts will next compete in the lead section of the semi-finals on Wednesday, with the top eight progressing through to the final.

After climbing’s debut in Tokyo where all three disciplines were counted together for one medal, in Paris, speed climbing is a separate medal.

McArthur said: “This is the most receptive and entertaining crowd I’ve ever climbed in front of. They just love it and you can tell by how they cheer everything you do.

“I’ve never been in a place like it.

“It’s really hard to tell in this sport. I felt like I performed really well, I felt unbelievably close to getting more tops.

“I feel I have more to give but it’s so hard in this sport to give everything.

“You can feel like you’ve done incredibly well and had a heroic performance but you’ve just not quite got the points you deserve. 

"I can’t complain at all, I had a great time out there and I loved every minute.”

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