Le Pays De France - Sweden's Duplantis sets new world pole vault record

Duplantis went clear at 6.20 metres on the third time of asking in raucous conditions at the Stark Arena to improve by 1cm his previous best set two weeks ago in the same Serbian venue.

The Swede joined the competition with the bar at 5.60m, going on to pass four times as rivals fell by the wayside.

Duplantis saw American Chris Nilsen fail at 5.95m and Brazil's Rio Olympic champion Thiago Braz at 6.05m.

The bar was immediately raised to 6.20m, but Duplantis failed in his first two attempts in chaotic, noisy scenes as the 4x400m relays were held on the track.

After they had finished, the Swede took a deep breath and shot down the bright blue runway, the crowd exploding as he sailed over the bar.

The 22-year-old Swedish Olympic champion had warned when he cleared 6.19m in an almost empty arena on March 7 that he had more in the tank.

Duplantis has held the world record since February 2020, when he cleared 6.17m in Torun in Poland and then 6.18m in Glasgow a week apart.

At times he seems able to raise the record one centimetre at a time, like the Soviet and Ukrainian great Sergey Bubka, who, in the days when outdoors and indoors were considered separate, broke the outdoor world record 17 times and set indoor bests 18 times between 1984 and 1994.

World Athletics has done away with the distinction between indoors or outdoors in pole vault records.

Duplantis, nicknamed "Mondo", was born and raised in Lafayette, Louisiana, but competes for Sweden through his mother, who trains him with his father.

He became European champion in 2018 in Berlin at only 18, and took the Olympic title last summer in Tokyo with a jump at 6.02m.

The world indoor title was one of the two missing from his record, along with that of the world outdoors.

He will have the opportunity to have a tilt at that in July in Eugene, Oregon.

(N.Lambert--LPdF)