Armand “Mondo” Duplantis secured victory at Sunday’s Diamond League meeting in Silesia but fell short in his attempt to set a 16th world record.
Key takeaways
- Duplantis won the pole vault competition after clearing 6.20m.
- Emmanouil Karalis finished second after three misses at 6.20m.
- Sondre Guttormsen was the first vaulter to surpass six metres.
- The winning height was 1cm below Duplantis’ attempted world-record mark of 6.32m.
Duplantis works through a testing competition
The Swedish star elected not to enter the contest at 5.50m, then needed two attempts to get over 5.65m after failing at the first time of asking. He subsequently bypassed 5.80m, a height Greek challenger Emmanouil Karalis cleared comfortably as the competition began to tighten.
Karalis progressed over 5.90m, while Duplantis suffered an unusual failure on his opening attempt at that height. Norway’s Sondre Guttormsen then became the first athlete to clear 6.00m, with Karalis following before a fist-pumping Duplantis also made it over. The other seven competitors could go no further.
Victory secured before world-record attempt
At 6.10m, Duplantis again needed his second jump to succeed. Guttormsen was unable to respond, while Karalis raised the pressure by passing the height. Both remaining vaulters also opted out of 6.15m, leaving Karalis to jump first when the bar was moved to 6.20m.
Karalis failed at that height, but Duplantis cleared it. The Greek then knocked the bar off twice more, confirming Duplantis as the winner and setting up a possible assault on a 16th world record for the US-born Swede.
The bar was lifted to 6.32m, one centimetre above the existing world record. Duplantis, however, stopped after a single attempt and did not continue his challenge.
