World Athletics Championships: Armand Duplantis breaks pole vault world record
Image credit: World Athletics
Armand Duplantis of Sweden, who already had the pole vault world title, broke the previous mark in Oregon by clearing 6.21 metres.
The 22-year-old Olympic champion cleared 6 metres for the first time to win the gold medal. None of his competitors was able to surpass 5.94m.
On his second attempt, Duplantis broke his world record of 6.20m, which he had set in March in Belgrade.
He has already broken the world record five times.
Since the famous Sergey Bubka initially cleared 6.14 metres in Sestriere, Italy, in 1994, this achievement was the first time the record had been set outdoors.
Before being welcomed by his father, Greg, a former elite pole vaulter himself, Duplantis, a Louisiana native, performed a front flip in front of a large crowd, kissed fiancée Desire Inglander, and then celebrated with a front flip.
About the one significant medal that was missing from his collection, Duplantis said, “It was something that I truly desired and needed.”
On the last day of competition in the World Championships in Eugene, a second world record was established.
Earlier, Tobi Amusan of Nigeria broke the 100-meter hurdles world record in her semi-final with a run of 12.12 seconds before taking home the gold in 12.06. That time in the final would have been a brand-new world record, but it was disqualified due to a tailwind that was too strong.
Cindy Sember of the United Kingdom won the semi-final, which was won by Amusan, and advanced to the final with a time of 12.50, which was a British record and bested her sister Tiffany Porter’s 2014 time by a hundredth of a second.
With Amusan’s record excluded, it was one of four national records set in the semi-finals, when seven other competitors also set or beat personal records.
“That race was absurd. I believed that my pace was slow. I can’t dispute that Tobi was outstanding” Sember, who finished fifth in the final, made this statement.