Pole vault king Duplantis misses out on new world record
Pole vault king Duplantis misses out on new world record
Olympic pole vault champion Armand Duplantis just fell short in his bid to set a new world record at the Birmingham Grand Prix on Saturday.
The Swede had three attempts at 6.19 metres, one centimetre higher than his own world record of 6.18m set in Glasgow two years ago.
Duplantis came closest with this third attempt, just brushing the bar on the way down to his evident frustration.
Duplantis had already won the competition by clearing 6.05m, well ahead of Brazil's Thiago Braz, the 2016 Olympic gold medallist, who cleared 5.81m. Ben Broeders of Belgium finished third in 5.71m.
Earlier, five-time Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah won the women's 60 metres.
The Jamaican, who at last year's Tokyo Games retained her 100m and 200m titles, won in a time of 7.08 seconds as she finished ahead of Switzerland's Mujinga Kambundji and British runner Daryll Neita, who ran 7.11 and 7.13 respectively.
Britain's Isabelle Boffey won the 1,000m in a personal best time of two minutes and 38.25 seconds.
In the men's 60m, Britain's Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake failed to make the final, finishing seventh in his heat a day after it was announced he had been stripped of the 4x100m relay silver he won in Tokyo due to team-mate CJ Ujah's failed drugs test.
Noah Lyles, the world 200m champion outdoors, led a United States clean sweep of the podium places in the final.
Lyles won in 6.55 seconds, with the second-placed Ronnie Baker being given the same time. Elijah Hall was third in 6.56 seconds.
Britain's Tokyo Olympic silver-medallist Keely Hodgkinson set a new national record in winning the women's 800m.
The 19-year-old, in her first race since September, finished well clear of the field in a time of one minute 57.20 seconds to surpass Jemma Reekie's previous British record of 1:57.91.
Australia's Catriona Bisset was second in 1:59.46, just ahead of Jamaica's Natoya Goule.
(C.Fournier--LPdF)
