Asian Games 2023: All four Indian climbers progress to semifinals

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 here 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.