TOKYO (AP) — Armand “Mondo” Duplantis broke the pole vault world record for the 14th time Monday night, clearing 6.30 meters to capture his third world championship.
Duplantis, who grew up in Louisiana but competes for his mother’s native Sweden, easily won his 49th straight meet and fifth straight major title, including Olympics, then kept the crowd around for another drama-rich half-hour to watch him go for the record.
He cleared his top height (20 feet, 8 inches) on his third and final try — the bar still bouncing but not falling as he leaped off the mat and jumped into second-place finisher Emmanouil Karalis’ arms to start the celebration.
Duplantis gets $70,000 for the victory plus a $100,000 bonus for setting the record at the world championships. The jam-packed stadium that stuck around for his finale gets a great memory.
“To give you guys this moment, it’s just amazing,” Duplantis said in an in-stadium interview.
The 25-year-old first broke the record on Feb. 8, 2020, clearing 6.17 meters and knocking France’s 2012 Olympic champion, Renaud Lavillenie, off the top spot.
Since then, Duplantis has improved upon the record by one centimeter every time, giving him more opportunities to pocket bonuses like the one he gets at this event.
“What Mondo has in spades is what every pole vaulter is trying to achieve,” said Sam Kendricks, the fourth-place finisher who is the last man not named Duplantis to win a world title (in 2019). “He’s got a jump, he’s got the jets. He’s got a family that really supports him, and then he’s got a field of guys that’s really pushing him up there.”
As great a showman as an athlete, Duplantis shared handshakes and hugs with all those guys after Karalis missed at 6.20 meters to guarantee Duplantis the win.
He headed over to the edge of the track to consult with his coach, walked back near the runway and took a seat, then stood up, chalked up his hands and let the drama begin.
Just as he did a year ago at the Paris Olympics, Duplantis missed his first two tries, leaving himself with one, last all-or-nothing attempt.
After sitting for about five minutes, he got up, took off, reached a speed of more than 35 kilometers per hour (22 mph), then went vaulting over the highest height ever cleared — enough room to fit a full-sized pickup truck.
“I believe in him,” said his dad, Greg, in an interview from the stadium. “I believed he was going to make it on the last one. You’ve got to believe.”
The next question is how high Duplantis might finally go. He suggested in an interview before the championships that 6.5 meters was an interesting number.
At that rate, it would take another few years. The good news is, he’s 25 and, for comparison, the great Sergey Bubka, who won six straight world titles through the 1980s and ‘90s, was 31 when he broke the record for the 17th and final time.
His final mark was 6.14 meters and after Lavillenie topped that once, Duplantis took over a streak that he extended in Tokyo — the first time he’s broken the record in Japan.
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