Another championships, another world record, another day in the life of the incredible Mondo Duplantis. The Swedish superstar won his third successive world title and then went on to clear a staggering 6.30m on an incredible evening at Tokyo 2025 on Monday (15).
Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis also asserted his place as the world’s second best, winning silver with 6.00m, the 12th competition this year in which he has cleared six metres.
There was also a magnificent victory in the women’s 100m finals by Ditaji Kambundji of Switzerland, who left a high-class field in her wake to take gold.
Plus, there were medals in the men’s marathon for Germany’s Amanal Petros and Italy’s Iliass Aouani who won silver and bronze. In the closest finish ever in a major championship men’s marathon, Petros missed out by 0.03 to Tanzania’s Alphonce Felix with both timed at 2:09:48.
Mondo thrills again
The headlines of course went to Mondo who continues to thrill in his dream-like career. Once he had confirmed gold with a flawless card up to 6.15m, the bar was sent skyward to 6.30m. After a near miss on his second attempt, he rose to the occasion as ever and slid over the new world record height sending the crowd into raptures.
The other major European success of the night came via Ditaji Kambundji who ran the perfect race in the women's 100m hurdles final, exploding from blocks and speeding to victory in 12.26, slashing 0.14 off her national record to win gold.
It added the world title to the European indoor crown she won in Apeldoorn in March in a European record of 7.67. World record holder and 2022 champion Tobu Amusan of Nigeria won silver in 12.29, USA’s Grace Stark won bronze in 12.34, with Olympic champion Masai Russell in fourth in 12.44.
Kosonen just misses hammer medal
In the women’s hammer final, Finland’s Silja Kosonen fell just short of a medal, placing fourth, her best effort coming with a fourth-round hurl of 75.28m. It was a slight improvement of her ranking at the Paris Olympics and the 2023 World Athletics Championships, where she placed fifth on both occasions.
In a competition won by reigning Olympic and world champion Camryn Rogers of Canada with 80.51m, four-times champion Anita Włodarczyk of Poland was sixth with 74.64m.
Both semi-finals of the men’s 1500m were very physical affairs. In-form Dutch runner Niels Laros, who recently triumphed at the Diamond League final, won heat 1 in 3:35.50, just edging past long-time leader and defending champion Josh Kerr of Great Britain by 0.03 in the closing straight.
2022 champion Jake Wightman was a further 0.03 behind to also qualify for Wednesday’s (17) final. Spain’s former European indoor 800m champion Adrián Ben can also look forward to the final, after placing third in a blanket finish in heat 2, clocking 3:36.78.
"I was really confident today," said Laros. "I was running against three former world champions and I hope they were a little bit scared when they saw they were running in the same heat as me. This is what I came here for.
"It''s going to be my third big final but it's going to be a different one. In Budapest I was really young, preparations before Paris were not perfect, but now I think everything is possible in the final. The level of competition is really, really high. But I can achieve everything."
Warholm eases through in 400m hurdles heats
In the men’s 400m hurdles heats, Norway’s Karsten Warholm was making a return to the scene of his world record-breaking Olympic title victory four years ago. But he was much more measured in the heats, preserving energy as he placed third in heat three in 48.56 to advance to Wednesday’s (17) semi finals.
Spain’s Enrique Llopis and Switzerland’s Jason Joseph were among the race winners in the men’s 110m hurdles heats. European silver medallist Llopis won heat 4 in 13.22 (0.0m/s) and European bronze medallist Joseph won heat 2 in 13.27 (-0.2m/s).
Tentoglou routinely qualifies for final
Greece’s Olympic, world and European champion Miltiadis Tentoglou needed just one attempt to book his place in Wednesday’s (17) men’s long jump final, landing at 8.17m to progress automatically. European indoor champion Bozhidar Sarâboyukov of Bulgaria, also did enough to qualify with a best of 8.10m.
In the morning session, Olympic silver and bronze medallists Bence Halász of Hungary and Mykhaylo Kokhan of Ukraine both booked their place in the men’s hammer final, qualifying with 78.42m and 77.33m respectively. Poland’s Pawel Fajdek, a five-times world champion, progressed second overall for Tuesday’s (16) final with 78.78m.
In the women's pole vault qualifiers, Switzerland's European champion Angelica Moser progressed with a first time clearance at 4.60m for Wednesday's (17) final. But there was heartbreak for former world indoor champion Molly Caudery of Great Britain who was injured in gthe warm up.
The qualifiers from the women’s 3000m steeplechase heats included Germany’s 2022 European silver medallist Lea Meyer who was fourth in heat 3 in 9:13.18 to secure a spot in Wednesday’s (17) final.
Defending champion Femke Bol made light work of the women’s 400m hurdles qualification, winning heat 1 in 53.75 to ease through to Wednesday’s (17) semi finals.