NOS Sport•gisteren, 22:41
Olympic gold and world record pole vaulter Duplantis
Pole vaulter Armand Duplantis continues to set world records. At the Stade de France, the Swede jumped 6.25 meters at the Olympic Games. Naturally, he won gold.
“I kind of black out at that moment, it just happens,” Duplantis said, reflecting on the moment he became the first person to pole vault 6.25 meters. “It feels pretty good, I can say that.”
It is the ninth time that the 24-year-old Duplantis breaks the world record. The 2021 Olympic champion was already certain of the title after a jump over 6.00 meters.
The Lafayette, USA-born athlete is only the third man or woman to win gold twice in the 128-year Olympic history, after Bob Richards (1948 and 1956) and Yelena Isinbayeva (2000 and 2004).
But ‘Mondo’ wanted more than gold in the Stade de France and went on. First to take the Olympic record from Thiago Braz, who won the Olympic title in 2016 with a height of 6.03 meters. Duplantis left little of the record of the Brazilian, who is not at the Games in Paris due to a doping ban.
After that, Duplantis rested for a while, before his own world record from April of this year was up (6.24 meters). At the third attempt, the four-time world and European champion hit the mark.
More than 75,000 spectators cheered and the ecstatic athlete sprinted to his girlfriend.
AFPArmand Duplantis
“I broke the world record in the Olympic final, with all those people shouting my name. I don’t know if I can do better,” said the man who seemed to mock the laws of physics. “Gravity always wins in the end,” Duplantis promised. “But I’m doing better than the others, I think.”
Vloon enjoyed supporting role
The silver went to two-time world champion Sam Kendricks from the United States, who was the only one to match Duplantis over 5.95 meters. Greek Emmanouíl Karalís won bronze.
Menno Vloon played a supporting role in the big Duplantis show, just like in 2021. In Tokyo it went wrong at the second height, in Paris at the third height. With 5.70 meters Vloon finished eleventh.
“Unfortunately, but in the final again. I’m happy with that,” said Vloon after his second Olympic final. He too was amazed by the ‘Duplantis show’. “That’s insane. You just get goose bumps when he jumps over it. We all look at him with big eyes. What he achieves, no one has ever done that before. It remains bizarre.”
