The Odesa region celebrates another significant sports victory! 19-year-old Grigory Ilchishin, a native of Odesa, secured a silver medal at the World Cup stage in climbing, specifically in the «speed» discipline, held in Wuzhiyuan (People's Republic of China).

In the qualifying rounds, Grigory ranked 13th, allowing him to face the fourth qualifier, Olympic participant Zak Hammer (USA), in the first playoff round. With a confident performance and a time of 5.21 seconds, our athlete advanced to the quarter-finals.

In the quarter-finals, Grigory set a new Ukrainian record — 5.01 seconds, surpassing his Chinese competitor.

In the semi-finals, he triumphed over the bronze medalist of the 2024 Olympic Games, Samuel Watson (USA), with a result of 5.11 seconds.

In the finals, our athlete only lost to the Chinese representative Qiangguo Long, but still achieved a phenomenal result — 4.98 seconds, becoming the first in Ukrainian climbing history to finish under 5 seconds!

«I am extremely happy, but I believe I can do even better! I will try to show an even better time at the next stage in Bali (May 2-4)», the athlete commented on his historic success.

We congratulate Grigory on this incredible achievement and wish him more victories on the international stage! Odesa is proud of its athlete!