In his last competition prior to the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, world record-holder Armand Duplantis maintained his unbeaten streak in 2025 with victory in the pole vault in the Zurich Diamond League Final on Wednesday (27) evening with a 6.00m clearance.
But the Swede, who has improved his world record three times in 2025, only won on countback from Greece's Emmanouil Karalis who cleared 6.00m or higher for the 11th time this year indoors and outdoors to secure his fifth Diamond League title.
Duplantis achieved first-time clearances at every height between 5.50m and 6.00m with Karalis needing three attempts at 6.00m to extend the competition and keep himself in contention to hand Duplantis a rare defeat. Both athletes concluded their competitions with three failures at 6.10m.
"Today - well, I am a human being, I do not break world records every day, there are days when I feel decent and others when I feel bad. Today I felt somewhere in between," mused Duplantis who is targeting a third successive world outdoor title in Tokyo next month.
Simon Ehammer also took an excellent victory on home soil in the long jump. The 25-year-old, whose main goal next month will be the decathlon at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, set the standard in the third round with a jump which was measured at 8.32m, sparing 14 centimetres on the take-off board.
World indoor champion Mattia Furlani came close to dislodging the Swiss from the top of the leaderboard, improving to 8.30m in the fifth round - just one centimetre shy of his season’s best - with Australia’s Liam Adcock third with 8.24m.
"Winning at home in Zurich, winning at the Diamond League final, it is huge. I lost a lot on the board at my best jump but the jump was good. I hope to bring this flow to Tokyo," said Ehammer who confirms he is planning to contest both the long jump and decathlon at the World Athletics Championships.
Olyslagers defeats Mahuchikh in thrilling high jump
The women’s high jump was another highlight on the first day of the Diamond League finals with four athletes clearing 2.00m or higher in the same competition for the first time since the 2022 World Athletics Championships.
Two-time world indoor champion Nicola Olyslagers was in sensational form, clearing six successive heights between 1.91m and 2.04m - an Oceanian record - with first-time clearances for victory over world record-holder Yaroslava Mahuchikh who equalled her season’s best of 2.02m.
With Olyslagers soaring over 2.04m on her first attempt, Mahuchikh raised the bar to 2.06m and had three encouraging attempts at a height which she hasn’t surpassed since breaking the world record last year with 2.10m in Paris.
There were also encouraging performances from Great Britain’s Morgan Lake and Ukraine’s Yuliia Levchenko, both of whom cleared 2.00m to finish third and fourth respectively on countback.
