The men's Speed qualifiers brought yet more World, Olympic, Continental and Personal Records. Sam Watson (USA) lay down the gauntlet for the finals with a new world-best of 4.75 seconds. 

Bassa Mawem (FRA) set the first ever Olympic Speed record in Tokyo 2020 of 5.45 seconds. Given the faster and faster World Record and personal best times recorded since then, it was almost a given that a new Olympic Record - and possibly a World Record - would be set as soon as the first few runs. 
 
Indonesia's Rahmad Adi Mulyono was the first to smash the Olympic record in 5.07s, before his teammate Veddriq Leonardo cut it down to 4.92s. World Record holder Sam Watson (USA) stormed to a time of 4.91s. To end the run of this record-breaking first-round, Kazakhstan's Amir Maimuratov set a PB and Olympic record of 4.89s. 
 
In the second seeding round, Italian World Champion Matteo Zurloni recorded 4.94s for a PB and new European record. Veddriq pushed the pace, equalling Sam Watson's World Record of 4.79s for a PB, Asian record and yet another Olympic record. 
 
In the elimination round to decide the eight finalists, there were three head-to-head face-off featuring two athletes from the same country, leading to to some tense races. In a cruel twist, these circumstances prevented any nation from having two finalists. 
 
Indonesian Veddriq Leonardo beat his teammate Rahman Adi Mulyon. A huge Indonesian support crew - some members sporting traditional headdresses and performing songs and dances - brought excellent energy to the event.

Sam Watson made it through in the USA battle against Zach Hammer – setting a new world, Olympic and Pan American record of 4.75s along the way.

 
After the round, Sam said: "Obviously setting a new world record is awesome, and taking it back after I lost it by a couple of thousandths of a second (in the seeding heats), definitely means a lot.

"In my second qualifying run I got really close, just a tiny slip, but probably one of the faster 10m ever run. That really meant a lot to me and I can go a lot faster. I'm in the Olympic final and we're going to try and compete for a medal."

Talking specifically about the wall he told the IFSC: "There's elements that go into the wall feeling fast. The organisers have done an incredible job at putting us into the best possible situations.

"The warm-up was great. Having a wall behind the wall really helped. My coaches have got me into the best physical shape possible and they've really not cut any corners with getting this event to be perfect."

Amir Maimuratov (KAZ) succeeded over Joshua Bruyns after the South African (4.94 vs 5.84). After the races he told the IFSC: "It's a fast wall and I even got a record in my second attempt. I did a mistake in the elimination round, but it was still a good time and I made it through, so I'm feeling like I'm in my prime right now, and I will be even better in finals."
 
Matteo Zurloni (ITA) beat Jinbao Long to make finals, while Long's teammate Peng Wu qualified after a race against South Korea's Euncheol Shin.

 
An unexpected win by New Zealand's Julian David against Reza Alipour Shenazandifard of Iran - whose pre-competition PBs were 5.26 vs 5.04 respectively - brought delight and anguish. Julian set a new continental record and PB of 5.20s and automatically qualified for the quarterfinals as his New Zealand supporters roared. Despite Reza's loss and visible upset after the race, he eventually made the finals as the 'fastest loser' with a time of 5.06s. Suddenly, he was in tears of joy.
 
Talking about his achievement, David said: "I'm pretty stoked. It's a phenomenal feeling. My goal was to get a PB, and I did that, and thankfully it got me through to the finals which is a bonus, so yeah I'm pretty happy with that. The crowd was phenomenal and when you hear their reaction you think wow, yeah, I've done it. I'm up here with the big dogs now."

 
The last race of the day was between home favourite Bassa Mawem (FRA) - the oldest climber competing at Paris 2024 at 39 - and Ukraine's Yaroslav Tkach. Bassa attacted the biggest cheers of the day each time he stepped up to the wall, with people in the crowd showing off a giant cardboard print of his face, banners and t-shirts to signal their support. He won by the narrowest margin in the Speed event so far: by 0.01s with a PB time of 5.16s compared to Tkach's 5.17s. 

 
Bassa has plans to retire from competition after the Olympics. His brother Mickael - the 2023 Boulder world champion - was watching in the venue and seemed overcome with emotion both before and after his climbs. It was a redeeming return to the Olympic stage for Bassa, who ruptured his bicep in the combined semi-final in Tokyo 2020, preventing him from competing in the final. Instead, he had to sit and watch his brother Mickael represent the family name on the world's biggest sporting stage. This Thursday, the roles will be reversed. 
 
The men's Speed finals will take place on Thursday 8 August.

Full results here.