Sweden’s Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis retained his Olympic pole vault title with ludicrous ease on Monday (August 5), needing only four successful attempts to take gold with 6.00 metres, then capped a memorable night by beating his own world record with a clearance of 6.25.
Duplantis, one of the hottest favourites of the athletics programme, went above and beyond to the delight of the crowd.
Having seen off silver medallist American Sam Kendricks and Greece’s bronze winner Emmanouil Karalis for the gold, he duly knocked off 6.10 at the first attempt to overhaul Thiago Braz’s Olympic record 6.03 from the 2016 Rio Games.
With all other events finished, the capacity Stade de France crowd then focused fully on Duplantis’ bright yellow shirt and neon pink-lit pole frame as he tried to beat the world record of 6.24 he set in April.
The first two attempts were close but he slipped over and around the bar with incredible athleticism on the third, bringing a deafening roar from the 69,000 fans who had stayed to witness athletics history.
Still only 24, Duplantis is the world record holder, double Olympic, double world, triple European and double indoor world champion.
