He never stops climbing. Archidominator in his discipline for years, the Swede Armand Duplantis took his pole vault world record up a notch on Saturday, April 20, during the opening meeting of the Diamond League in Xiamen (China). At just 24 years old, the world champion crossed the 6.24m mark, his eighth world record, since he supplanted his role model, Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie, in 2020.
Three months before the Olympic Games, the man who affirmed at the end of February his certainty “that he would beat any current or past pole vaulter in a confrontation”, during a meeting with Le Monde, reaffirms his costume as a huge favorite to win a second Olympic title in Paris 2024.
“Pole vaulting is more of a competition against myself than against others,” said “Mondo” Duplantis, met during the All Star Pole in Clermont-Ferrand at the end of February. Alone in the world, in the Chinese stadium of Xiamen, after his last competitor – the American Sam Kendricks – stumbled on the six meters, the flying Swede crossed the bar raised to 6 on his first try and with a considerable margin, 24 meters. A mark he had already tackled twice this winter indoors, in Clermont-Ferrand then in Glasgow, during the World Indoor Championships – two competitions which he nevertheless won. The third try was good.
Olympic champion, double world champion and double reigning European champion, Armand Duplantis continues to write the history of his sport, centimeter by centimeter. In the style of Sergei Bubka, the first man beyond 6 meters, who improved his record for ten years, the Swede who grew up in Louisiana (United States) – homeland of his father, Greg – is nibbling the best world mark, one bar after another. “I hope that’s what’s going to happen, if I’m still at a very high level in 2030. I want to jump 6.30m. This is a new possible barrier to overcome,” concluded Armand Duplantis at the end of February. With his new record at 6.24 m, “Mondo” is already only six centimeters from this barrier. And he seems to embody the phrase “sky is the limit” better than anyone.
