IFSC European Championships ¦ Speed Finals ¦ Villars ¦ Men's ¦ 2024

Hello and welcome to Villars-sur-Olonne for the European Championships and as you can see we're turning our attention first of all to speed climbing. For the men we've got a full field here starting with the first round. Matteo Zalone on the left of your screen, Maceo Garnier on the right. Well no four starts and it's great for Matteo Zalone. Look at this streaking up the walk and Garnier keep in touch. I don't think he can, no. Matteo Zalone will move forward pretty easily. So next up Konstantin Pavlenko and Kevin Amon on the right. Big swinging start from Kevin Amon. It has helped him off the blocks but Konstantin Pavlenko is coming back and this could be anyone's. Konstantin takes it though 5.4. So Yaroslav Tkach on the left and Miguel there on the right. And that is a fast start from both men but Yaroslav walking away with this at the moment. If he can keep it together he slaps that banger. 5.433 for him. Right Eric Neuer running on. Guillermo Moro on the right. That's a big start from Eric Neuer but look on the right of your screen. Moro's coming back at him slowly. Can Eric hold it together at the top? He can but only just. 5.3s for both of them. Ludovico Fasali on the left. He's up against Alessandro Boulos on the right. It was a much quicker start by Alessandro but he kind of messed himself up on that explosion. He is still in it though but Ludo's easily going to walk away with this one. Right Marcin Dzienski on the left. Gianluca Zotta on the right. That's good stuff for both men. Gianluca Loda though ahead at the moment. Can Martin Dzienski pull something back? No he can't. Gianluca Zotta will move forward. Fyjander Kamins comes on on the left-hand side. Tirihori Iltitsin on the right. Good start from both men. Tirihori is ahead at the moment. Can he hold it together? Are we entering the last stage of the race just? And a 5.18. Final race. Sebastian Luca on the left. Lucas Knapp on the right. Good start from both men. Absolutely neck and neck at the moment. Lucas Knapp perhaps in the middle. Oh Sebastian with a big slip and then Lucas with a big slip. It's back and forth. Well a 6.27. And the first round of the men's race will be rerun. So here we go everyone. We're going to restart here in Villars. And now these athletes are the ones who have made it through this far. And we will start all over again. Matteo Zalone on the left of your screen. Matteo Gagnier on the right. Well that is a quick start again. He is slightly ahead as he was before and he was fast through the top section last time. And he is again in fact maybe slightly better. Matteo Zalone moves forward. Konstantin Pavlenko and then Kevin Amon on the right. That's a quick start from Konstantin. But look at Kevin Amon who is bringing it back at the top. This could be Kevin gets beaten again. Yaroslav Tkach on the left. Miguel on the right. Yaroslav with a bit of an explosion off. Miguel was ahead. He's now behind. Yaroslav will take this pretty easily with a 5.26. And Erik Neuer on the left. Guillermo Moro on the right. Well it's a big start for both athletes. But then Guillermo immediately has a bit of a hesitation. He's behind and Erik should take this easily. It was all lost at the start then. Ludovico Basal and up against Alessandro Rios. Well it is a good start. Alessandro way quicker. He slipped last time. It's much closer this race. Who's going to take it? But then a pause at the top. And Ludo does take it with a good time. Marcin Dzienski versus Jean-Luc Soder. Well it's good from both at the moment. Marcin still a little behind. But this is better from him on the left. And a big slip for Jean-Luc Soder. Sent him down. Oh goodness. Next race. Leander Kamens versus It's a good start for both. Hirihori is way ahead. And he's going to be further ahead now. Oh but a big slip. This could be anyone to the top. Liana takes it. All right. Last race in the 16th. Sebastian Luca versus Lucas Napp. Close but the record. Yes. All right. Back in action. Big one for Sebastian Luca. Lucas Napp coming back at him though. Can he pull something out of the bag? No. Sebastian Luca will move forward. All right. Let's have a look at the results, shall we? These are the proper results this time. Matteo Zalone and then Konstantin Povlenko on the right. So here we go. World champion on the left of your screen. Let's see what he can do here. Well what a start from Konstantin. Matteo Zalone is going to have to find something here at the top. And I think he has done. He does. So Eric Neuer is up against it with Yaroslav to catch here. Let's see what happens here. It's clean from both. Eric slightly ahead. Yaroslav coming back at him. Oh Yaroslav slips. It's all over for him. Eric takes it. And that was done when Yaroslav slipped. Next race now. Ludovico Fossali on the left. Marcin Zieński on the right. It's like the end to a movie really. It was massive. Let's see if he can do it again. And the moment is quick. Marcin slips. He's out of it unless something happens here. Ludo will take it with a 5.079. Very nice. So two teammates against each other. Leander on the left. Sebastian Luca on the right. That's a good start from Sebastian. Good clean run from Sebastian there though. These four now. They'll fight it out to see who gets forward into which final. So Matteo Zalone will take on Eric Neuer first of all. Well it's a good one for both athletes. Matteo looks so smooth at the moment. He's going to take this pretty easily eventually with a 4.987 sub 5. Right now he is Ludovico Fossali on the right against Sebastian Luca on the left. That's a good one from Ludovico Fossali. Sebastian's out of it. Can Ludovico just... Oh something slipped from him. He needs to be careful here. He'll finish things off at a snail's pace because you don't want to slip. That was close. So Matteo Zalone. Two teammates in the final. Matteo Zalone versus Ludovico Fossali. So small final for the men. Eric Neuer on the left of your screen. Sebastian Luca on the right. Oh it's a full start from Sebastian. He carries on. I don't think he knew or realised but he goes down which means Eric Neuer will take that. Not the way you want to see it. All right last race here of this evening. Ludovico Fossali on the right. Matteo Zalone on the left. Oh it's a good start from both. Impossible to call. Now it is. Matteo Zalone slips. Ludo should take this. Is it going to be two golds? It is. Ludovico wins. Goodness. Ludovico what else can I say? You've just won gold medal number two in a row after Brianne's son. You must be feeling great but talk me through that last race. I don't know. I don't know how to explain the last race. It was the first time with Matteo and Matteo is a really strong guy. So the pressure was on and I think both of us felt that we tried our best and some mistake happened but it's okay. Yeah it was pretty tense. It was a wonderful moment where you at the end of the race you'd lay down on the stage and it looked like all the emotion hit you at the same time. What was going on in that moment? You know this year was pretty hard. The Olympic was the goal so after the Olympic I had to reset myself and keep going on for the comp that was happening and this one was the first one. So it's pretty nice to have seen the Olympic in Paris, to watch them and to feel some emotion in Paris. But you know every moment of training after didn't qualify was a point for the European Championship. So I guess I made it and for the next Olympic I know what to do. Well congratulations on that double. Hopefully you make it a triple soon. Thank you Ludo. We'll see you later. Thank you. Can I can I just say ciao mama? As the national anthem finishes the men will gather. And there are the men on stage. Two Italian teammates on the left. Well Eric Neuer another medal for his collection.