Swede Armand Duplantis sets pole vault record as he retains world title

TOKYO – The World Athletics Championships were, not for the first time, the Armand “Mondo” Duplantis show on Sept 15 as the Swede set a world record of 6.30 metres to retain his world title in Tokyo.

He kept the drama going to the end at the Japan National Stadium – after the 25-year-old retained his crown, he went on to break the world record for the 14th time, on his third and final attempt.

The 53,000-strong crowd had stayed rooted to their seats even though the action on the track had ended long before.

He had already wrapped up the competition with a winning vault of 6.15m, before raising the bar another 15cm. He went clear on his third attempt in a discipline in which he is totally dominant.

Duplantis then raced around the track, before running into the stands for a passionate kiss with his fiancee Desire Inglander and a quick embrace of his parents, much to the delight of the fans.

His rivals swarmed around him as he made his way back, enveloped in a Swedish flag.

“It’s better than I could have imagined,” he said. “To give you guys this world record is amazing. The crowd were so loud.”

Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis took silver with 6.00m, then helped to keep Duplantis cool with an electric fan, and Australian Kurtis Marschall claimed bronze by matching his personal-best 5.95m, taking the medal on countback from American Sam Kendricks.

“I felt the only way to leave Japan was to set the world record,” said Duplantis. “That was my mentality. I don’t know what is next for me at this moment, I don’t care.

“I will just enjoy this right now. I was feeling really good the whole day. I knew I had the record in me.”

Marschall said: “Mondo is from another planet. He is doing incredible things, things many people thought were impossible. I can’t wait to see what he’s got in the future.”

In the morning session, Alphonce Felix Simbu snatched gold in the first photo finish at a major championship marathon, edging out German Amanal Petros in a dramatic race to the line to give Tanzania their maiden world title.

The photo finish showed the 42.195km race was decided by three hundredths of a second as Simbu surged past the diving Petros at the line, closer than the 0.05-second gap between the gold and silver medallists in the men’s 100m final on Sept 14.

Simbu and Petros were given the same time of 2hr 9min 48sec, the German taking the silver despite heading the field. Italian Iliass Aouani took the bronze in 2:09:53.

“When we entered the stadium, I was not sure if I would win,” the 33-year-old Simbu said. “I did not know if I had won.

“But when I saw the video screens and me on the top of the results, I felt relieved.

“I made history today – the first Tanzanian gold medal at a world championships.”

In other finals, Canada’s Olympic champion Camryn Rogers became a two-time hammer world champion – with the second-longest throw in history after her second-round effort of 80.51m.

China took silver through Zhao Jie, with a personal best of 77.60m, and bronze via Zhang Jiale (77.10m).

Switzerland’s Ditaji Kambundji stunned a stellar field to win the women’s 100m hurdles in a national-record 12.24sec.

World-record holder Tobi Amusan of Nigeria, the world champion in 2022, took silver in 12.29 and American Grace Stark the bronze in 12.34. Olympic champion Masai Russell, the former hurdler of the year, was fourth in 12.44, while twice world champion Danielle Williams finished seventh in 12.53.

New Zealand’s Geordie Beamish produced a last-gasp spurt to edge out defending two-time champion Soufiane El Bakkali for gold in the men’s 3,000m steeplechase.

He won in a slow 8min 33.88sec, with Moroccan El Bakkali (8:33.95) second and Kenya’s Edmund Serem rounding out the podium (8:34.56).

In the men’s 400m hurdles, Singapore’s Calvin Quek clocked 50.17sec in the first-round heats on Sept 15 to finish last out of nine hurdlers in heat three and 39th out of 44 hurdlers overall. His national record is 49.75sec.

Only the top four runners of each of the five heats and the next four with the fastest times overall qualify for the semi-final.

Singapore’s other representative at the world championships, Shanti Pereira, will be in action in the 200m heats on Sept 17.

Meanwhile, Olympic sprint champion Julien Alfred said she was still mulling over running in the women’s 200m, despite her agent saying that her season was over because of a hamstring strain.

The Saint Lucian, who won the 100m gold and 200m silver at Paris 2024, said on Sept 14 after finishing third in the 100m final that she had run with an injury.

Her agent Henry Rolle told Television Jamaica that Alfred had suffered a grade one hamstring strain and was withdrawing from the 200m, but the 24-year-old said on Sept 15 that no decision had been made.

“I do feel a bit more pain now as I decided to run the race last night,” she told reporters after receiving her 100m bronze medal.

“But overall, I’m deciding to wait for my team to see how we go forward with the decision. I’m still deciding, I have one more day to see how it feels and then go from there.”

Alfred ran the fastest 200m time of 2025 with a scorching 21.71 in London in July. The 200m final is on Sept 19. AFP, REUTERS