Armand Duplantis won his third successive world indoor pole vault title at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing on Saturday (22) and he achieved the significant landmark of 100-plus career vaults in excess of six metres during the competition.
Duplantis cleared 6.15m to seal a hat-trick of titles, a height which only Renaud Lavillenie and Sergey Bubka - aside from Duplantis - has ever cleared but the Swede was made to work hard by joint European indoor champion Emmanouil Karalis from Greece who continues his heady ascent up the ranks of global pole vaulting.
Duplantis cleared 5.90m, 6.00m and 6.05m on his first attempts but the world record-holder was matched by his Greek friend and rival who also cleared 5.95m on his first attempt. He passed at 6.00m and then re-entered with another first-time clearance at 6.05m, a three centimetre improvement on his Greek record.
Both vaulters recorded their first failures of the competition at 6.10m but Duplantis gained the ascendency after almost two hours of vaulting with a second-time clearance at this height before putting the competition out of Karalis’ reach with a first-time clearance at 6.15m.
Duplantis, who admitted he felt heavy and lethargic during the competition, removed his spikes and adorned his tracksuit after his 6.15m clearance, eschewing any attempts at improving his world record which he recently improved to 6.27m at the All-Star Perche in Clermont-Ferrand.
But this was still a historic competition in every sense. For the first time in history, two vaulters - Duplantis and Karalis - cleared 6.05m or higher in the same competition and Duplantis took his tally of six metre-plus vaults up to 102 by the end of the competition.
Steven Mills for European Athletics