Armand Duplantis cleared a world lead of 6.06m on his season’s debut at the All Star Perche in Clermont Ferrand, a World Athletics Indoor Tour Silver meeting, on Sunday (22) afternoon.
There were doubts as to whether the world record-holder would even compete after a recent bout of food poisoning but Duplantis didn’t seem to be suffering from any lingering effects, clearing 5.70m, 5.90m and 6.06m on his first attempts.
Duplantis subsequently raised the bar to a world record height of 6.31m but the 26-year-old, who has broken the world record at this meeting twice in the past, including last year with a 6.27m clearance - his first of four world records in 2025 - couldn’t quite revise the world record for the 15th time in his unparalleled career.
In a near repeat of the order from the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo where Duplantis cleared 6.30m, world bronze medallist Kurtis Marschall finished second and achieved his first ever 6.00m-vault in the process. After needing three attempts at 5.90m, Marschall cleared 6.00m on his first attempt to become the newest member of the six metre-club.
World silver medallist and European indoor champion Emmanouil Karalis, who cleared 6.00m in Lievin on Thursday, had to settle for third with 5.90m. The Greek failed once at 6.00m before trying twice in vain to match Duplantis at 6.06m.
Duplantis is planning to compete just once more before the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Kujawy Pomorze from 20-22 March. He will headline his home meeting, the Mondo Classic, in Uppsala on 12 March when he will face the likes of Marschall and Karalis again.
In the women's pole vault, Czechia's Amalie Svabikova cleared 4.76m to defeat three other vaulters on countback.
Both Svabikova and Slovenia's Tina Sutej cleared 4.76m on their first attempts but one fewer failure throughout their respective series was enough for the Czech to win outright.
New Zealand's Imogen Ayris and France's world indoor champion Marie-Julie Bonnin also cleared 4.76m to finish third and fourth respectively, a lifetime best for the former and an outright national record for the latter.
Prior to this evening, Bonnin had shared the French pole vault record with Ninon Guillon-Romarin at 4.75m.
Full results here