Few athletes have enjoyed a more enduring relationship with the European Athletics Championships than Armand Duplantis.
It was in Berlin in 2018 that an 18-year-old Duplantis announced himself on the senior stage, winning his first major title and clearing six metres for the first time. Eight years later, the Swede returns to the championships that launched his career seeking an unprecedented fourth successive European outdoor crown.
Since that breakthrough victory, Duplantis has transformed the event beyond recognition. He has raised the world record an astonishing 15 times, won every major global title and redefined what is possible in the pole vault.
Remarkably, he has broken the world record at the Olympic Games, World Athletics Championships and World Athletics Indoor Championships—but never at a European Athletics Championships. Birmingham offers another opportunity to change that.
European record – Armand Duplantis (SWE) 6.31m
European lead – Armand Duplantis (SWE) 6.31m
Championship record – Armand Duplantis (SWE) 6.10m
Rome 2024 medallists
- Armand Duplantis (SWE) 6.10m
- Emmanouil Karalis (GRE) 5.87m
- Ersu Şaşma (TUR) / Oleg Zernikel (GER) 5.82m
Five names to watch
- Armand Duplantis (SWE)
- Emmanouil Karalis (GRE)
- Sondre Guttormsen (NOR)
- Baptiste Thiery (FRA)
- Bo Kanda Lita Baehre (GER)
But for the first time this decade, Armand Duplantis arrives at a major championship with some lingering concerns about his form and fitness.
The world record-holder suffered his first defeat in three years on home soil in Stockholm in June and in his last competition in London, Duplantis, who was sporting some bandaging on his thigh, opted to retire after clearing 5.95m while trailing Sam Kendricks from the United States on countback.
Fortunately, the MRI scans didn’t reveal any lasting damage and the pole vault qualifying not taking place until 14 August will give Duplantis some extra recovery time as he bids to win his fourth successive European title.
"After a professional examination that also includes an MRI, it shows no damage whatsoever to Mondo's groin or back. A little lighter training and adequate treatment over the next ten days and Mondo will be fully recovered according to the forecast. Previous competition plans remain intact," said his agent Daniel Wessfeldt as quoted by SVT.
Duplantis famously broke through at the 2018 European Athletics Championships in Berlin when the 18-year-old Swede stunned the world with a 6.05m clearance to break the championship record and become the youngest vaulter to gain entry into the exclusive 6.00m club.
Since then, Duplantis has raised his championship record to 6.06m in Munich 2022 before improving to 6.10m to clinch a hat-trick of titles in Rome 2024 before a brace of attempts at a world record height.
The silver medallist behind Duplantis in Rome was Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis, a perennial runner-up to Duplantis at major championships in recent years.
Karalis has been threatening to vault high all summer but he hasn’t so far managed to replicate the calibre of vaults he was producing during the indoor season when he soared over 6.17m at the Greek Indoor Championships to become the second highest vaulter in history. Can he reproduce this sort of form when it counts in Birmingham?
Incidentally, Duplantis has a 45-1 head-to-head record over Karalis but his one victory over the Swede came in this very city at the 2018 World Athletics Indoor Championships when the two teenagers finished fifth and seventh respectively in the final.
The most likely disrupter is Sondre Guttormsen, the 2023 European indoor champion, who cleared 6.00m outdoors for the first time in his career in cold conditions at the Norwegian Championships in Trondheim at the end of July.
There will also be high hopes for a French medal in this event. Incredibly, 10 French vaulters have cleared 5.75m or higher this year and Les Bleus will be represented in Birmingham by brothers Thibaut and Mathieu Collet, whose father and coach Philippe won bronze at the 1986 European Athletics Championships, and former decathlete Baptiste Thiery.
Thiery is fourth on the entry-list with a 5.93m clearance and has been pushing towards the 6.00m-barrier all season. If he does achieve this feat, he would become the first athlete in history to have cleared 6.00m in the pole vault who has also achieved over 8000 points in the decathlon.
The entry-list also includes Germany’s Bo Kanda Lita Baehre, the silver medallist behind Duplantis at the 2022 European Athletics Championships in Munich, Portugal’s Pedro Buaro who recently set a national record of 5.85m and Menno Vloon from the Netherlands who shared the European indoor title with Karalis in Apeldoorn last March.