XI'AN, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- China's Olympian climber Pan Yufei grabbed gold in the men's combined Lead & Boulder event at the country's 14th National Games here on Tuesday.
The 21-year-old representing Hubei Province also became the first men's champion in sport climbing's debut as a medal competition at China's quadrennial multi-sport event, which began approximately one month after the Tokyo Olympics ended.
"It's physically challenging for me to compete in two major Games in such a short space of time. I haven't been training systematically since the Olympics," said Pan, admitting that he didn't live up to his own expectations in the Boulder discipline in both the qualification and final round.
Pan ranked first in both Boulder and Lead in the final, bettering his qualification performance with fourth in the Boulder and first in the Lead. In the Boulder, he failed only one top and one zone, securing first place after reaching the top on boulder four where no one else had succeeded.
The conclusion of the Lead round saw no change in the scores as Pan finished the highest. No climber topped in Lead.
"I enjoyed the Lead very much," said Pan. "The quick draws were almost placed straight in a line, but the route was relatively long and twisted around the quick draws, and I can see the route setters used all types of holds to test the climbers."
Pan competed at Tokyo 2020, where he ranked 12th in sport climbing's debut in the Olympics and was eliminated in the qualification round.
"I could have done better but I haven't been competing abroad since the pandemic," Pan talked about his journey in Tokyo after the National Games final, adding that he was looking forward to getting back into international competitions next year. Enditem
