Kiromal Katibin

Kiromal Katibin (born 21 August 2000) is an Indonesian competition climber who specializes in competition speed climbing. He was the world record holder in speed climbing, with a time of 5.009 seconds recorded at 2022 IFSC Climbing World Cup in Chamonix, France in July 2022, until it was broken by his compatriot Veddriq Leonardo in April 2023. He finished second overall in the men's speed category during the 2021 IFSC Climbing World Cup series. Katibin also has four career IFSC Climbing World Cup medals, all in speed.

Kiromal Katibin

Katibin at Bern, 2023
Personal information
Nationality	Indonesian
Born	(2000-08-21) 21 August 2000 (age 24) Batang, Central Java, Indonesia
Climbing career
Type of climber	Competition speed climbing
Known for	Previous speed climbing world record holder (5.009 seconds, July 2022)
Medal record Men's competition climbing Representing  Indonesia World Games 2022 Birmingham Speed World Cup (Season) 2021 Speed 2022 Speed Asian Games 2022 Hangzhou Speed relay Asian Championships 2019 Bogor Speed 2019 Bogor Speed relay Asian Youth Championships 2018 Chongqing Speed juniors

Early life

In 2007, Katibin saw sport climbing for the first time in a Batang city square during the Provincial Sports Week.^[1]

Since 2009, Katibin has been training with his brother.^[2] He was motivated to pursue sport climbing because he enjoyed meeting many friends, but he started winning national-level championships. His first medal was in the lead climbing competition at the 2011 National Championships. He also won the speed climbing gold medal at the 2016 National Championships and the speed climbing gold medal at the 2017 National Championships.^[3]

Career

Katibin collected his first senior international medal, winning silver at the 2019 Asian Championships in Bogor, Indonesia.^[4]

On 28 May 2021, Katibin set a record for the fastest-ever ascent in competition speed climbing with a record of 5.25 seconds in the qualifying round of a IFSC World Cup event in Salt Lake City, United States. The record had been held by Reza Alipour who climbed in 5.48 seconds in 2017. He finished the competition with a silver medal, losing the same day in the final race to his compatriot Veddriq Leonardo, who set a new world record of 5.20 seconds.^[5] In July 2021, Katibin won a bronze at the Villars World Cup.^[6] He finished the 2021 World Cup series in second place overall.

On 6 May 2022, Katibin regained the world record from Leonardo with a 5.17-second run in the qualifying round of the World Cup event in Seoul, South Korea.^[7] On 27 May, he lowered his own world record with 5.10 seconds in the qualifying round of the World Cup event in Salt Lake City.^[8] On 30 June, he broke the record for the fourth time in the IFSC World Cup Villars qualifiers with 5.097 seconds and improved his record again later that day with a 5.04-second run.^[9] On 8 July, Katibin set the world record for the seventh time in 14 months with a time of 5.009 seconds at the Chamonix World Cup qualifying round.^[10]

In July 2022, Katibin won the silver medal at the World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, losing to Leonardo in the final.^[11]

In April 2023, Katibin lost the world record to Leonardo, who recorded runs of 4.984 and 4.9000 seconds at the 2023 IFSC Climbing World Cup in Seoul.^[12]

Achievements

World Games

Men's speed

Year	Venue	Opponent	Time (s)	Result	Ref
2022	Sloss Furnaces, Birmingham, United States	Veddriq Leonardo	fall–7.230	Silver	[13]

Asian Games

Men's speed relay

Year	Venue	Partner	Opponent	Time (s)	Result	Ref
2022	Keqiao Yangshan Sport Climbing Centre, Shaoxing, China	Veddriq Leonardo Rahmad Adi Mulyono Aspar	Wang Xinshang Wu Peng Zhang Liang Long Jinbao	FS–W	Silver	[14]

Asian Championships

Men's speed

Year	Venue	Opponent	Time (s)	Result	Ref
2019	Pakansari Stadium, Bogor, Indonesia	Veddriq Leonardo	5.547–5.460	Silver	[15]

Men's speed relay

Year	Venue	Partner	Opponent	Time (s)	Result	Ref
2019	Pakansari Stadium, Bogor, Indonesia	Veddriq Leonardo Zaenal Aripin	Sabri Rahmad Adi Mulyono Fatchur Roji	fall–23.492	Silver	[16]

Asian Youth Championships

Speed juniors

Year	Venue	Opponent	Time (s)	Result	Ref
2018	Chongqing, China	Milad Alipour Shenazandifar	6.05–6.42	Gold	[17]

IFSC Climbing World Cup

Men's speed

Year	Venue	Opponent	Time (s)	Result	Ref
2021	Salt Lake City, United States	Veddriq Leonardo	fall–5.208	Silver	[18]
2021	Villars, Switzerland	Vladislav Deulin	5.30–5.38	Bronze	[19]
2022	Seoul, South Korea	Veddriq Leonardo	fs–6.965	Silver	[20]
2022	Salt Lake City (I), United States	Noah Bratschi	5.643–fall	Gold	[21]
2022	Jakarta, Indonesia	Aspar	5.75–5.39	Silver
2023	Jakarta, Indonesia	Wu Peng	6.34–fall	Bronze
2023	Salt Lake City, United States	Samuel Watson	4.98–5.98	Bronze
2024	Wujiang, China	Ludovico Fossali	5.07–5.16	Bronze

World records

See also: Speed climbing § World and Olympic records

Men's World Record History

Date	Time (s)	Location	Competition
July 8, 2022	5.009[22]	Chamonix, France	World Cup
June 30, 2022	5.04[23]	Villars, Switzerland	World Cup
June 30, 2022	5.09[24]	Villars, Switzerland	World Cup
May 27, 2022	5.10[25][26]	Salt Lake City, United States	World Cup
May 6, 2022	5.17[27]	Seoul, South Korea	World Cup
May 28, 2021	5.25[28]	Salt Lake City, United States	World Cup

Rankings

Climbing World Cup

Discipline	2021	2022
Speed	2	2

Number of medals in the Climbing World Cup

Speed

Season	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
2021		1	1	2
2022	1	2		3
2023			2	2
Total	1	3	3	7