High drama as GB climber clings to gold...but KJT has to settle for silver

TOBY Roberts, 19, snatched a sensational gold medal in the men's combined climbing - fulfilling a dream he has harboured since the age of nine.

- Giles Sheldrick

Nicknamed The Terminator, he secured Team GB's first Olympics medal in the activity on a day of huge drama at Le Bourget Sport Climbing Venue.

The first people he sought out after his sensational win in the boulder and lead event were his mum Marina and dad Tristan, who is also his coach, with the trio warmly embracing and sobbing with delight.

Hoisting a Union flag above his head he was asked how he would celebrate being crowned Olympic champion. He said: "I imagine I won't be sleeping - I'll get very, very drunk." Toby honed his climbing skills on a wall knocked up in his parents' garden in Elstead, Surrey.

He only won his first gold medal at senior level in competition bouldering last year.

Toby said: "I have literally no words, I don't think this is ever going to sink in. Just literally no words. I was happy with a silver... to find out that I got gold was an incredible moment.

"I am just lost for words. To find out I had got the gold in that moment was truly incredible. I have been training for this moment my whole life. 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 10 years. It was so nice to have my family here.

"That moment with them was just incredible." Late excitement during a gripping final saw Japan's Sorato Anraku, tipped as the overwhelming favourite for gold, slip and tumble on his final climb, handing victory to Toby.

Fellow Briton Hamish McArthur, 22, finished fifth in the same competition.