The Indian climbers started their campaign in boulder and lead events on a positive note as all four advanced to the semifinals of the Asian Games 2023 on Thursday. In the men's qualification match, Aman Verma finished eighth with a combined score of 118.8 (64.8 in boulder and 54 in lead) and advanced to the last four. Bharath Stephen Kamath Pereira followed suit after finishing 13th with a combined score of 97.8 (69.7 in boulder and 28.1 in lead). In the women's event, Saniya Farooque Shaikh, who finished 17th with a score of 51.4 (44.3 in boulder, 7.1 in lead) and Shivani Charak who finished 18th with a score of 45.9 (39.8 in boulder, 6.1 in lead) entered the semifinals. The men and women will play their semifinal clashes on Friday and Saturday, respectively.
Sport climbing was introduced at Jakarta Asian Games in 2018.
Speed climbing is one form of indoor rock climbing where athletes compete for the fastest time to the top of a vertical climbing wall.
Medals search on for India
Indian canoers and kayakers enjoyed a good day in the office as all four of them moved to the semifinals in their respective events at the Asian Games on Thursday.
Vishal Kewat moved to the men's canoe semifinal after finishing fourth in the second heats with a total time of 131.14 which included 12 penalty seconds.
Shikha Chouhan advanced to the women's kayak semi-finals with a time of 145.83, she was also handed 8 penalty seconds for a total time of 153.83s.
Hitesh (119.03s) and Shubham Kewat (122.98s) also progressed to the men's kayak semifinals after finishing 3rd and 4th respectively in the second heats.