Two ropes, two walls and 10.03 seconds — that's exactly how much Hryhorii Ilchyshyn and Yaroslav Tkach needed to bring Ukraine "gold" at the World Climbing Series stage in speed climbing in Chinese Chongqing in the final against the US team. The opponents started before the whistle, while the Ukrainians were simply faster than anyone in the continent's history.
The duo reached the final by setting their own record. In the quarterfinal against China's first team, Ilchyshyn and Tkach showed 10.26 seconds, breaking the previous continental record. In the decisive race against Americans Samuel Watson and Zack Hammer, the time was reduced to 10.03 seconds — and with this result, the Ukrainians climbed to the top step of the podium.
The World Climbing Series stage in speed climbing took place in Chinese Chongqing. The competition involved 100 athletes from five continents — 57 men and 43 women.
The previous European record in the relay also belonged to the same duo: in Krakow, Ilchyshyn and Tkach recorded 10.31 seconds. So in one season, the pair rewrote their own record twice, shaving off nearly three tenths of a second from it — for a discipline where victory and defeat are often decided by hundredths of a second, this is a radical leap forward.
Speed relay is not an old type of event. At the World Climbing Series level, it debuted only this year, and the federation is already considering it as one of the future main disciplines in the calendar. This means a simple practical consequence: the more significant the status of the discipline, the more tournaments, airtime and funding it receives — and along with it, the demand for coaches, climbing walls and training for younger athletes in the regions.
Speed relay is a new discipline that debuted at the World Climbing Series level only this year and is now considered one of the future main disciplines in the competition calendar.
For the Ukrainian climbing federation, this is not just another medal. In half a year, Ilchyshyn managed to set a European record in individual speed climbing competitions as well — 4.841 seconds, and this experience is now being converted into a team result. Two athletes have essentially become the face of a discipline that didn't even have status in the World Cup program last year.
The question now is practical: will the International Federation of Sport Climbing establish speed relay in the Olympic program for Los Angeles 2028, and will Ukraine have time to transform the record of one pair into a training system that produces results regardless of two specific names.
