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Ian O'Riordan: Why the record-breaking heights of Mondo Duplantis are truly out of this world
Somewhere, in the broken fragments of memory, there is a giant of a man throwing an unidentified object into the sky. Then, without warning, it comes crashing down into the black cinder infield, prompting a long 'whoa' from the crowd and a crackle from the old PA.
'Yuriy Sedykh … new world record!'
There must be something indelible about witnessing your first world record, live and in person, as a 12-year-old. Even when it's in the field, not on the track. Like
All-Ireland finals
and
Bob Dylan
gigs, I've lost count of the number witnessed since, but that first sighting of Yuriy Sedykh in the hammer will always stand out.
It was July 1984, down at Cork City Sports next to the Lee, and we were brought along by our dad on the strict condition we do not shout names at the runners. We didn't know a single thing about hammer throwing, or even care, but quickly realised that breaking a world record must be something extraordinary.
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Yuri Sedykh, the Russian Olympic hammer throwing champion. Photograph: Fairfax Media Archives
Sedykh may be a relic now of the old Soviet Union, but he is still remembered as the best at his event, with ample evidence of that in my essential handbook that is the Progression of World Athletics Records.
Olympic
champion in 1976 and 1990, he broke the hammer world record six times during his career, throwing 84.34m that evening in
Cork
.
Some of the local Cork crowd would have understood perfectly what they were witnessing. Dr Pat O'Callaghan from Kanturk,
Olympic hammer champion in 1928 and 1932
, broke the world record in 1937, throwing 59.56m in nearby Fermoy. Plenty more Irish hammer throwers, unable to represent their home country, did likewise, including John Flanagan, Matt McGrath, James Mitchel, and not forgetting Maurice Davin, the co-founder of the
GAA
, who threw a world record of 30.12m in 1881.
Sedykh later extended his hammer world record to 86.74m, winning the 1986 European title in Stuttgart, and 39 years later that record still stands. His record-breaking spree was aided by fierce competition from fellow Soviet thrower Sergey Litvinov, but as time has passed, more questions have been raised about the legitimacy of those marks.
Sedykh died in France in 2021, aged 66, and always denied allegations of doping. However, Russian doping whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov, in his 2020 book The Rodchenkov Affair, claimed that Sedykh was taking steroids, and most of his competitors were too.
Sweden's Armand Duplantis poses after setting a new world record of 6.28m in the men's pole vault event. Photograph: TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images
Despite being treated to several world records in all the years since, and some more believable than others, few athletes have come close to rivalling the actual feat of the last world record I witnessed live and in person: the pole vault height of 6.25m that
Swedish superstar Mondo Duplantis cleared to win the Olympic gold medal
in Paris last August.
The original Olympic motto of Citius, Altius, Fortius was first adopted in the main at the 1924 Olympics in Paris, and in the century since, few athletes have perfected the higher part better than Duplantis. He's broken that record height again three times since Paris, clearing 6.26m at the Silesia Diamond League in Poland just three weeks later, then clearing 6.27m at the Clermont-Ferrand indoor meeting in France in February.
Then last Sunday at the Stockholm Diamond League, inside the old 1912 Olympic Stadium, Duplantis cleared 6.28m at his first attempt, making it world record number 12 for the 25-year-old, with the obvious promise of more to come.
Armand Duplantis of Team Sweden jumping 6.28 to set a new world record. Photograph:'There's not much between me and 6.30m, technically, I'm just a perfect day away from it,' Duplantis said. 'The first time I jumped in this stadium when I was 11 years old, it was rainy and cold, and I jumped right under four metres – quite high for how young I was.'
Crucially, Duplantis passed the first rule of being successful in any sport: choosing your parents wisely. His father Greg won several US pole vault titles, with a best of 5.80m, and his mother Helena, from Sweden, was a top heptathlete and volleyball player. They met while attending Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.
Born in Lafayette, Duplantis chose to represent Sweden from an early age. Although showing equal promise in baseball, and recently championing the benefits of playing multi-sports as a youngster, he soon concentrated solely on the pole vault, coached by his father and mother, who set up a practice runway and mat at their home.
He started clearing age group world bests every year between the ages of seven and 12, most of which still stand. In 2015, at 16, he cleared 5.30m to win the World Under-18 title in Colombia, and then in 2020, cleared 6.17m to break his first world record, improving the mark held since 2014 by one of his idols, Renaud Lavillenie from France.
Armand Duplantis of Team Sweden jumping 6.28 to set a new world record. Photograph:He's won two Olympic titles since, five World titles, between indoors and out, plus four European titles. In April, he was named Laureus World Sportsman of the Year, after four previous nominations − just the second track or field athlete to land that honour after four-time winner Usain Bolt.
Such is his perfect combination of strength, speed and agility, Duplantis can use longer, stiffer poles designed for heavier vaulters. He explained the benefits of that to the New York Times, saying the catapult effect it creates is like 'a pea on a plastic spoon that's shooting across a cafeteria'.
As for his coolness on the run-up, and his ability to make the ridiculously hard appear so utterly sublime, he said: 'I take a deep breath, think about what I'm going to do… and then I go and do it.'
Looking back through the Progression of World Athletics Records, few athletes have ever matched the rate of Duplantis, in any event. What sets him apart, however, is that there is no reason whatsoever to doubt his progression, that he is truly extraordinary, and that witnessing his world records will never grow old.
