Teenager Roberts wins climbing gold for Team GB

Toby Roberts won Great Britain's 14th gold in Paris and their first medal in sport climbing at an Olympics with a dramatic victory in the boulder and lead event.

The 19-year-old had his head in his hands, unable to believe his win, when Japanese world silver medallist and favourite Sorato Anraku slipped on his ascent up the 15m wall to give the Englishman victory.

Roberts, who improved his climbing on a DIY wall built in his parents’ garden, was third in the first part of the competition, contested across four boulders.

He then put himself in provisional first place with only Anraku to come by scoring 92.1 points out of 100.

Anraku only needed 86 points on the lead wall to knock Roberts into silver, but he lost his grip, resulting in gasps from the 6,000-strong crowd.

"I am just lost for words," Roberts told the BBC.

"To find out that I had got the gold in that moment was truly incredible."

Roberts' gold means climbing, introduced at the last Games in Tokyo, is the 44th different sport Great Britain have won an Olympic medal, across summer and winter Olympics.

Anruku, 17, took silver for Japan while 33-year-old veteran Jakob Schubert took bronze.

Britain's Hamish McArthur was fifth.

From back garden to Olympic champion

Roberts was eight when he first visited an indoor climbing centre and 12 when it was announced climbing would make its Olympic debut in Tokyo.

It was from there he and his father Tristian mapped out a route to the Olympics.

"I have been training for this moment my whole life," added Roberts.

"To say it hasn't sunk in is an understatement. I imagine later it will be a flood of emotions. It is a goal I have been training towards for like 10 years."

During the Covid-19 lockdowns "he levelled up" by practising in the garden and soon after his father rented accommodation in Austria to gain access to better facilities.

He won his first World Cup medal in 2022 and last year won golds in the boulder and lead individual events.

At the Olympics both events are combined and he achieved the third-best scores in each to secure overall gold.

Roberts, who also trains on mountains in France and Spain, made it to the difficult, final section of the wall climb before he fell but the error by his Japanese rival came on the previous section.

"We never talked about medals, just what can he do and the path to get there," said his father, who is also his coach.

"Everyone can have a good plan, but to implement it like he has and show up every day to make it happen, that is what he has done."

His success had already meant he has been give the nickname Toby 'The Terminator' Roberts - a reference to the 1980s film character played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"It''s not a self-given nickname," he said.

"I'm not sure how I feel about it. I don’t think I could really give myself a nickname. I think I'd just call myself Toby."

Roberts won Team GB's 52nd medal of the Olympics