Sweden’s Armand Duplantis sets new pole vault world record

Sweden’s Armand Duplantis has broken his own pole vault record, clearing 6.22 metres to add one centimetre to his previous mark at the World Athletics Indoor Tour Silver meeting in France.

After knocking the bar in his first two attempts at the height, the 23-year-old Olympic champion cleared the mark on Saturday with room to spare on the third try, letting out a cheer as the crowd went into a frenzy of celebration.

He had barely touched the mat before a spray of sparklers went off and meet director Renaud Lavillenie, the Olympic champion in 2012, ran to embrace him.

Duplantis had the competition won already when he cleared 6.01 metres on the first try, as Australian Kurtis Marschall finished second with a 5.91 metres leap while the Netherlands’s Menno Vloon took third.

The Swedish athlete likened his pole vault world record to “an out-of-body experience”.

“When you have moments like this, when the energy is so high, and you’re going down there for the record, it feels like levitating, it feels like my body never even touched the ground the whole jump,” he said.

It was the sixth time that Duplantis has broken the world record.

He set the first in Torun, Poland, in February 2020, when he cleared 6.17 metres to add a centimetre to Lavillenie’s previous world record of 6.16 metres that had stood since 2014.

Saturday’s effort also marks the 60th time the Swede has cleared six metres or higher.

“Each world record feels like it brings something a bit different out of me,” Duplantis said. “Maybe the first one might have been a bit crazier, but this might be number two right now, it’s really unbelievable.”

He said rewriting the record books no longer left him with any nerves.

“The pressure doesn’t really feel the same anymore to me. I’ve proved a lot the past few years, the past two years especially, and I know what kind of jumper I am, what I am capable of.

“I know that I am deserving to be in the spot that I am.”

-al jazeera