STOCKHOLM :Sweden’s Armand Duplantis soared 6.28 metres to break the world pole vault record at the Diamond League event in Stockholm on Sunday, the 12th time he has set a new world-best mark. The American-born double Olympic champion improved on his previous record, set in February, by one centimetre on his first attempt, making the most of the perfect conditions to delight the home crowd.
Having promised fans ahead of the competition that he would try to break the record, Duplantis encouraged the crowd to get behind him from the moment his name was announced at the Swedish capital’s Olympic stadium and they responded by wildly clapping and cheering his every attempt as he cruised through the competition.
Kurtis Marschall did his best to put it up to the hometown favourite, but the Australian could only manage a best effort of 5.90 before making three unsuccessful attempts to clear the six-metre mark.
That left the field clear for Duplantis as the bar was raised to 6.28 for his world record attempt, and once again, the 25-year-old made it look easy.
He powered through his run-up before planting his pole and soaring to another world record as the stadium, built for the 1912 Olympics, exploded in jubilation.
Duplantis sprinted from the landing mat, tearing off his singlet to celebrate his first world record set on Swedish soil with his partner and family.
“This was one of my biggest goals and dreams, to set a world record here at Stadion. It’s like the Olympics and Stadion, they’re the same level for me. I really wanted to do it, I had my whole family here, from both sides, it’s magic, it’s magic,” he said.
“Every time I broke the world record, I felt it in my first jump that ‘this could be the day’, but today it felt a little tougher. It didn’t feel that natural from the beginning, it didn’t feel great in my legs, but I only needed one (try),” an emotional Duplantis added.
Despite the confident impression he gave as he sailed over the bar, Duplantis said he was not convinced he had cleared it until his back hit the mat.
“I almost couldn’t believe it, it felt like the very first time I broke the record. For me, I’m still a little hazy in my mind, it feels unreal, I’m just so happy, it’s a cloud nine feeling. It’s hard to explain, it’s hard to compare, it felt a bit like the Olympics,” he said.
In the women’s 400m hurdles, Dutch athlete Femke Bol blazed away over the last 100 metres to win in a season-best time for her of 52.11 seconds, eight-tenths of a second ahead of American Dalilah Muhammad, who came second.
