Mondo Duplantis added a centimetre to his own world pole vault record to claim his first outdoor world title, soaring over 6.21m as the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 came to a close on an incredible high on Sunday (24).
The 22-year-old had improved his own world record mark to 6.20m when winning world indoor gold in Belgrade in March and he carried that remarkable form through to the outdoor championships at Hayward Field.
It is the fifth time that Mondo Duplantis has improved the world record, the Swedish star first breaking it with his 6.17m clearance in Torun in February 2020.
But it is the first time he has broken it outdoors – the last time an outdoor performance led to a world record was when pole vault great Sergey Bubka soared over 6.14m in July 1994, more than five years before Duplantis was even born.
Duplantis has now also overtaken Bubka when it comes to career six metre-plus clearances, having managed that feat 48 times to Bubka’s 46.
In Oregon, Duplantis had earlier cleared a championship record of 6.06m on his first attempt and had the competition won at 6.00m.
USA’s Olympic silver medallist Chris Nilsen secured a world medal of the same colour after clearing 5.94m. That height was also managed by Philippines’ Ernest John Obiena, who added a centimetre to his own Asian record to win bronze – the first ever World Championships medal for his nation.
Men – Pole Vault
Statistical Summary
- Armand “Mondo” Duplantis (SWE) won the gold medal, as expected, adding this to his Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold medal and his silver medal from Doha 2019.
- Duplantis cleared 6.00 metres for the 47th time in his career, breaking a tie with Sergey Bubka of Ukraine, who had cleared that height 46 times.
- Duplantis continued to jump after he had clinched the title, clearing 6.06 on his 1st attempt. He then attempted 6.21, going for the world record. He made it on his 2nd attempt for the 3rd world record set at Oregon22, bettering his own mark of 6.20 set indoors in March at the World Indoors in Beograd, Serbia.
- Chris Nilsen (USA) won the silver, clearing 5.94 before missing three attempts at 6.00 metres.
- Ernest Obiena of the Philippines won bronze, the best finish for his nation in this event, after his performance in 2019, when he was 15th in qualifying. Obiena’s medal was also the first and best finish by a Filipino athlete in any event at the World Championships. He had been tied with Marestella Torres in the 2005 women’s long jump.
- Obiena also vaulted 5.94, but had 1 miss at the height to lose the silver medal to Nilsen.
- Renaud Lavillenie of France placed =5th, not able to add to his total of 5 medals in the event.
