Always higher ! The Swedish Armand Duplantis established, Saturday, February 25, a new world record for the pole vault by passing the bar of 6.22 m, at the All Star Perche meeting in Clermont-Ferrand, on the lands of his idol, the Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie
Master of suspense, it took three tries for the 23-year-old champion, encouraged to the end by thousands of spectators chanting his name and all committed to his cause, to erase his previous record by one centimeter.
The first attempt thrilled the crowd until the last moment, when he hit the bar as he landed. No more success on the next try. “My second attempt was not good, so I was quite upset, explained the Swede to journalists. It’s the toughest pole I’ve ever used, all I had to do was have a good run, and I was running really well today. »
“As if I was levitating”
In this overheated atmosphere, Duplantis finally achieved the feat on the last try, in an almost daze: “It’s as if I was levitating, as if my body had never touched the ground during the whole jump”.
In the end, “Mondo” – his nickname – once again pushed the limits of his discipline.
Beat this world record ahead of Renaud [Lavillenie], it’s incredible. He is so important in my life, for my career, he is a big brother, a mentor, since I joined the circuit at 17 years old. Without him, I don’t think I would be where I am now.
When he fell back on the mattress, it was precisely the Frenchman, organizer of the meeting, who immediately took him in his arms. “It’s the dream of any organizer, of any pole vault lover, and it’s just extraordinary, and it allows me to keep this motivation to organize an incredible event and as always the athletes make it good »confided Lavillenie, even if he admitted a little frustration, that “for not having jumped and taken part in the party entirely”.
Before his new feat, Armand Duplantis had easily dominated the men’s competition, being the only one to cross the 6 meters (6.01 m). He ends his indoor season in Clermont-Ferrand and will not be present at the European Championships in Istanbul next month, “as planned from the start”.
“I wanted a slightly shorter indoor season, to break the indoor world record”. A bet that turned out to be a winner on Saturday evening. “The outdoor season is my main focus this year, and that’s what I’m trying to prioritize”said the native of Lafayette, Louisiana, in the United States, he who represents Sweden, the country of his mother.
He has already won everything
The pole vault prodigy was only a high school student when he slammed a 5.90m jump at age 17 during the Texas Relays in April 2017 in Austin, where he revealed himself.
Rebellious hair, angel face, golden ring in his ear, he seems straight out of a “teenage movie”, a genre he likes, when he spent a year later at the University of Louisiana (LSU ). It was during this period, in August 2018, that he became senior European champion after a memorable competition in Berlin, finishing at 6.05m.
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Since then, he has amassed all possible titles: European indoor champion in Torun and Olympic champion in Tokyo in 2021, European outdoor champion in Munich, indoor world champion in Belgrade and outdoor champion in Eugene ( Oregon) in 2022.
Saturday in Clermont-Ferrand, he broke the world record for the sixth time. The teenager has grown well, and probably has not finished his moult.
The world records of Armand Duplantis
- 6.17 m on February 8, 2020 in Torun (Poland), indoors
- 6.18m on February 15, 2020 in Glasgow, indoors
- 6.19m on March 7, 2022 in Belgrade, indoors
- 6.20m on March 20, 2022, in Belgrade, indoors
- 6.21 m on July 24, 2022, in Eugene (Oregon, United States), outdoors
- 6.22 m on February 25, 2023 in Clermont-Ferrand, indoors
Before Armand Duplantis, it was Renaud Lavillenie who held the world record with a jump of 6.16 m indoors on February 15, 2014 in Donetsk (Ukraine). The Frenchman had himself exceeded by two centimeters the bar set almost twenty years earlier by the Ukrainian Sergei Bubka, in Sestriere (Italy).
The International Athletics Federation changed its rules in 2000 allowing indoor jumps to be recognized as world records. The highest jump was then achieved by Bubka with 6.15 m in February 1993 in Donetsk.