Paris: Armand Duplantis was speechless after the Swedish star soared 6.25m to set the ninth world pole vault record of his career and cap a gold medal-winning performance at the Paris Olympics.
The 24-year-old has won every global men’s pole vault title since claiming his first Olympic crown in Tokyo three years ago. With this latest victory, he became only the second man to secure two pole vault gold medals at the Games, following the double achieved by USA’s Bob Richards in 1952 and 1956.
"I haven't processed how fantastic that moment was. It's one of those things that don't really feel real, such an out of body experience," Duplantis said in a press conference.
"What can I say? I just broke a world record at the Olympics – the biggest possible stage for a pole vaulter. The biggest dream since I was a kid was to break the world record at the Olympics, and I’ve been able to do that in front of the most ridiculous crowd I’ve ever competed in front of," he added.
With the session's other events already completed and his gold medal already secured, Duplantis' bid for a new world record almost became an event within itself, an unexpected encore following a thrilling night of competition.
Duplantis had the competition won at 6.00m, before he had the bar raised to 6.10m – a height that added 7cm to the Olympic record. He cleared that on his first try but he wasn’t done there, and the bar went up to 6.25m – one centimetre higher than the world record of 6.24m he set in Xiamen in April.
After failing his first two attempts, he flew over the bar on his third and final try to make history yet again. USA’s Sam Kendricks claimed silver with 5.95m, while Emmanouil Karalis of Greece bagged bronze with 5.90m.
