Duplantis soars to world record
PARIS: World silver medallist Mondo Duplantis who soared to a pole vault world record 6.17 metres on Saturday can reach even higher heights, said Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie, whose mark the Swede shattered by a centimetre.
“It is completely conceivable, there is no reason why it cannot be in the long term,” Lavillenie told newspaper L’equipe when asked if Duplantis might one day clear 6.20 metres.
The Frenchman, who was vaulting in Rouen, France, when he heard about Duplantis’ record, said he had been expecting it. “I was prepared,” he said.
“He did it and it’s cool for him.”
LIFETIME DREAM
European champion Duplantis, the 20-year-old from Sweden, realised his lifetime dream with his record topping clearance at a meet in Torun, Poland.
“It’s something that I wanted since I was three years old”, the 20-year-old said. He made it on his second attempt after narrowly missing the record on Tuesday in Germany.
The American-born vaulter brushed the bar with his thigh on the way up on the first attempt, sending the bar crashing to the floor.
On his second, Duplantis again touched the bar again but it stayed up and the young pole vault star who began setting age group records when he was seven was now the event’s king.
“My emotions right when I landed in the pit, just yelling and just running around doing whatever,” Duplantis said. “I don’t think I had a brain for a second.”
Afterward he embraced his mother, Helena, a former heptathlete and volleyball player in Sweden where Duplantis, whose given name is Armand, spent summers and eventually decided to represent the European country internationally.
His dad Greg, who is his coach, was a talented American pole vaulter before retiring.
“Fantastic job!” Sergey Bubka, who broke the world record 35 times during his career and still has the highest outdoor pole vault ever at 6.14 metres, said on Twitter. “It’s great athletics has got such talents. Move higher!”
RIVAL STARS
NEWYORK: A blistering 800 metres for Donavan Brazier punctuated a handful of season’s bests, as sixtime Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix finished sixth in the 60-metres at the NYRR Millrose Games in New York City.
The 1:44.22 win for the 22-yearold Brazier set a roaring start to the World Champion’s bid to make the U.S. Olympic roster, as Olympic gold medallist Ryan Crouser beat World Champion Joe Kovacs to a season’s best in the shot put and Great Britain’s Chris O’hare won the men’s mile in another season’s best.
Before a roaring crowd at the Armory, Brazier lurked toward the back of the pack for the first 400 metres, then burst by his competitors for a dramatic finish.
“My coach kept telling me, ‘don’t go on the rabbit - put yourself in like fourth or fifth position, and just see where you can work from there,’” said Brazier.