Zhou gives the hosts more reason to cheer
The women’s final was also a display of personal bests like China’s Zhou Yafei reached the top inside 6.54 seconds. The 22-year-old was the second-fastest qualifier and lived up to crowd expectations by leading the entire final against the Indonesian Rajiah Salsabillah.
“I felt nervous, yes,” Zhou said after competing in front of the home crowd. “But I tried to block out the noise coming from the spectators.
“I just thought about the action, the things I had to do.”
Sallsabillah was ninth in qualifying but made a strong run to the final with a few near misses, including world No.2 Natalia Kalukka by a hundredth of a second in the semi-finals.
βFocus, relax. You can do it,β Sallsabillah later revealed about her self-talk during the competition. βI just focused on feeling confident, that I can do anything. Knowing that I could do really well was over my head.”
Earlier in the quarterfinals, Salsabillah also fended off Kalucka’s twin sister Alexandra β an elimination that powered Natalya through her emotional win over Korea Republic Jeong Jimin in the match that followed immediately after.
“This is a very difficult situation for us because I am so happy and she is very sad,” said Natalia Kalucka. “Sports are sometimes very brutal for athletes. In my life, my relatives are the most important thing and my sister is very important to me, she gives me strength to compete.”
The Polish star faced China Niu Di in the minor final. While Niu had the best start, the 2023 Speed ββClimbing World Cup winner successfully caught up and broke the board first in 6.67 seconds.
*As National Olympic Committees have sole authority to represent their respective teams at the Olympic Games, athletes’ participation in Paris 2024 depends on the selection of the NOC to represent their mission. click here to see the qualification system for each sport.
You can watch it Olympic Qualifying Series (OQS) in Shanghai from May 16 to 19 live Olympic Channel via Olympics.com and official Olympic Games app for mobile devices.