Athletics: Sweden's Duplantis breaks own pole vault world record with 6.22m
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Swedish athlete Armand Duplantis clears the bar as he sets a new world record, on Feb 25, 2023.
PHOTO: AFP
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PARIS – Armand Duplantis set a world pole vault record of 6.22m at an indoor meeting in France on Saturday, describing it as “almost an out-of-body experience”.
Olympic champion Duplantis improved his own record of 6.21m that he set in winning the world outdoor title in Oregon in 2022.
At the All-Star Perche meet, organised by 2012 Olympic pole vault champion Renaud Lavillenie in Clermont-Ferrand, Duplantis cleared the new mark with his third attempt, to the delight of the 4,000-strong crowd.
The Swede, 23, said: “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.
“There’s something about it that just feels overwhelming right now... I really think it’s because Renaud means so much to me, he’s meant so much to me since I first started, he’s been my biggest inspiration, biggest idol.
“He really motivated me, made me believe I could break the world record. So for me to break the world record here, his hometown, a competition he hosts.”
The United States-born Duplantis entered the competition at 5.71m, clearing that height on his first attempt.
He managed 5.91m on his second try before winning the competition by clearing 6.01m on his first attempt. He then had the bar raised to the record height.
He had barely touched the mat before a spray of sparklers went off and Lavillenie ran to hug him.
It was the sixth time that Duplantis has broken the world record. He set the first in Torun in February 2020, when he cleared 6.17m to add a centimetre to Lavillenie’s previous world record that had stood since 2014.
“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 No. 2 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 any more 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.”
Duplantis is giving the European Indoor Championships in Istanbul in March a miss. He will focus on the outdoor season and winning back-to-back world outdoor titles in Budapest in August. AFP
