Toby Roberts won Great Britain’s 14th gold in Paris and their first medal in sport climbing at an Olympics with a dramatic victory in the boulder and lead event.
The 19-year-old had his head in his hands, unable to believe his win, when Japanese world silver medallist and favourite Sorato Anraku slipped on his ascent up the 15m wall to give the Englishman victory.
Roberts, who improved his climbing on a DIY wall built in his dad’s garden, was third in the first part of the competition, contested across four boulders.
He then put himself in provisional first place with only Anraku to come by scoring 92.1 points out of 100.
Anraku only had to match the Briton on the lead wall to knock Roberts into silver, but he lost his grip, resulting in gasps from the 6,000-strong crowd.
“I am just lost for words,” Roberts told the BBC.
“To find out that I had got the gold in that moment was truly incredible.”
Roberts’ gold means climbing, introduced at the last Games in Tokyo, is the 44th different sport Great Britain have won an Olympic medal, across summer and winter Olympics.
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