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City of Bern

World Championship Speed Preview

Who will race to their Olympic Ticket?

Today, the 19th Speed World Championship will start in Bern, Switzerland, and it will be a special one with two Olympic places for the gold and silver medalists for men and women.

The World Championship will be the biggest competition of the season, with 82 Men and 59 women confirmed for the World Championship, and the fastest will be there.

Twenty men competing have PRs below 5.3 seconds, so expect a fast qualification round. The fastest ever was in Chamonix, with a time under 5.27 needed to reach the final. Will we beat that time?

Three of the four Indonesian athletes have run under 5 seconds; Leonard Veddriq, Kiromal Katibin and Rahmad Adi Mulyono. Aspar Aspar is also attending from Indonesia, though we will miss Raharjati Nursamsa, who won in Jakarta earlier this year. We have a full squad of 5 Chinese athletes, including Jinguao Long, Jinbao Long, Liang Zhang, Peng Wu, and Xinshang Wang. All have won World Cup medals.

Top Ten Male Athletes in Speed Attending Bern 2023
RankAthleteCountryPersonal Record(s)
1 Leonardo Veddriq INA 4.902
2 Kiromal Katibin INA 4.976
3 Rahmad Adi Mulyono INA 4.979
4 Peng Wu CHN 5.019
5 Samuel Watson USA 5.029
6 Rishat Khaibullin KAZ 5.052
7 Jinbao Long CHN 5.054
8 Xinshang Wang CHN 5.057
9 Jianguo Long CHN 5.06
10 Euncheol Shin KOR 5.131

The top 9 women have PRs below 7 seconds, and the top 20 are below 7.3 seconds. The fastest-ever qualification round was in Villars at 7.36 seconds, so expect an even faster round in Bern.

Aleksandra Miroslaw leads the group. Her World Record of 6.25 seconds has gone untroubled. Only Natalia Kalucka and Lijuan Deng have dipped under 6.5 seconds this year.

Aleksandra Miroslaw has won 2 World Championship golds. Can she make it a third and equal Olena Ryepko (UKR) record?

Top Ten Female Athletes in Speed Attending Bern 2023
RankAthleteCountryPersonal Record(s)
1 Aleksandra Miroslaw POL 6.25
2 Natalia Kalucka POL 6.453
3 Lijuan Deng CHN 6.475
4 Desak Made Rita Kusuma Dewi INA 6.521
5 Aleksandra Kalucka POL 6.64
6 Emma Hunt USA 6.688
7 Di Niu CHN 6.742
8 Rajiah Sallsabillah INA 6.767
9 Jimin Jeong KOR 6.864
10 Nurul Iqamah INA 7.053

Predictions

Schedule

  • 9 August Speed Qualification 09:00 - 12:00
  • 9 August Speed Final 20:00 - 21:00

More details. All times are UTC+2.

Where to Watch

You will be able to watch on

  • Eurosport Player within Europe,
  • ESPN Latin America and the Olympic Channel for Central and South America
  • TVRI in Indonesia
  • The IFSC YouTube Channel for other countries

You can catch up on the competition 24 hours afterwards on the Olympic Channel.