‘Magical' Duplantis soars to pole vault world record in Stockholm
SWEDISH double Olympic pole vault champion Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis increased his own world record again on Sunday, clearing 6.28 metres to the delight of the home crowd at the Stockholm Diamond League meet.
With victory in the event already guaranteed, Duplantis broke the world record for the 12th time as he sailed over the bar at the first attempt to improve on his 6.27m effort at Clermont-Ferrand in February.
The 25-year-old ripped off his shirt in celebration and raced down the track in front of jubilant spectators at the Olympic stadium built for the 1912 Games.
'It's a magical feeling, it's hard to explain,' said Duplantis, who had not before broken the record in Sweden.
'I wanted this so bad. I wanted to do this in front of everybody here in Stockholm.
'It felt like really something special in the crowd today and I knew that everybody really wanted to see it too.
'It'll be one of the greatest memories for me, I think, in my career.'
Duplantis notched up his 37th victory in 41 Diamond League outings, finishing well ahead of Australia's Kurtis Marschall who managed a best of 5.90m.
The US-born Duplantis was in a class of his own in another punishing display of vaulting of the highest order, three days after a stellar display in Oslo.
'I kept saying it was the only thing I was missing in the accolades, to break a record in Sweden,' he said.
'I've checked off pretty much everything now.'
Duplantis is the heavy favourite for a third successive world championship gold in Tokyo later this year. He is also a three-time indoor world champion.
He first broke the world record in 2020 when he surpassed the 6.16m mark set by Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie.
Duplantis intends to push the bar even higher after his Stockholm exploits.
'I'm going to jump higher. There's not much between me and 6.30, technically. It's just a few centimetres. I'm just a perfect day away from it,' he said.
Hometown runner Andreas Almgren fed off the raucous atmosphere to set a new European record of 12min 44.27sec to win the men's 5,000m.
Benjamin and Alfred on form
Olympic champion Rai Benjamin edged out Alison dos Santos to win the men's 400m hurdles, with Karsten Warlhom a distant third.
Warholm triumphed in the rarely-run 300km hurdles on his home track in Oslo on Thursday, but Benjamin produced a world-leading time of 46.54sec over 400m.
'I think on Thursday I got a little too excited but I felt good today even though I was tired,' said Benjamin.
Julien Alfred won the women's 100m in 10.75sec, the second fastest time of the year. It was only the Olympic gold medallist's second race of the season following her victory in Oslo.
Britain's Dina Asher-Smith took second (10.93) ahead of Ivorian Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith (11.00).
Two-time Olympic bronze medallist Femke Bol won the women's 400m hurdles in a season's best time of 52.11sec. She finished ahead of American Dalilah Muhammad (52.91) and Panama's Gianna Woodruff (53.99).
'I am not in my best shape yet so to take the victory is especially good,' said Bol.
'A race is never the same as training and it is only my third race of the season... but I am starting to feel the hurdles better every race and getting into race shape.
'It is such a high level at the moment in the hurdles so I am very excited going forward towards the world championships.'
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