Swedish pole vault superstar improved his global mark with a first time clearance at his own meeting in Sweden.
Mondo Duplantis has set a myriad of world records around the globe but this one could end up being the most special to him.
He has improved his own global mark at the Paris Olympics, two World Athletics Championships (Eugene and Tokyo) and his home Diamond League in Stockholm.
This world record, the 15th of his illustrious career, was at a meeting he helped create – the Mondo Classic in Uppsala – three years ago, off the back of his popularity in Sweden.
Such was the optimism that Duplantis would clear 6.31m, that organisers had installed a canon with golden confetti. As soon as the double Olympic and triple world champion crashed on to the mat, he was showered with the confetti and immediately mobbed by all of his competitors.
When Duplantis cleared 6.10m at the first instalment of the Mondo Classic in 2023, he broke Sergey Bubka’s record of 11 vaults of 6.10m or higher (including indoors and outdoors).
The Swede has now bettered another one of Bubka’s records, going one better than the Ukrainian’s tally of 14 world records. Duplantis has now raised the global mark from 6.17m to 6.31m in just six years.
Given his dominance over this period, perhaps the most surprising part of the whole evening was that Duplantis won so easily.
Just two weeks ago Emmanouil Karalis, who secured Olympic bronze in Paris and finished second to Duplantis in Tokyo, improved his best from 6.08m last year to 6.17m, going second on the all-time list.
Karalis was just one of five vaulters in the field who had cleared 6.00m this season, with the event boasting the greatest strength in depth in its history.
However just one other vaulter, Sondre Guttormsen, went over 6.00m, in what was a largely disappointing showing from the rest of the field.
There was no doubting that Karalis had the height on his three attempts at 6.00m but the Greek athlete failed to avoid the bar when coming back down to the ground.
Before the meeting, a lot of the headlines had focused on Karalis’ rise in the sport and whether he could even upset Duplantis on home soil.
But Duplantis, as has been the case for most of his career, was the centre of attention once again.
