The Swedish-American athlete Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis may not have broken the world record, but he still managed to get over the line without much fuss to win the Diamond League crown for the fifth time in a row, as he inched closer to Renaud Lavillenie, the French pole vaulter with seven titles.
Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis may not have had the tag of breaking a world record on Wednesday, August 27, in the Diamond League final in Zurich, but still, he got the job done, winning the pole vault title for the fifth straight time. Duplantis, who recently broke the world record for the 13th time in Budapest, going past the 6.29m mark, wasn’t at his fluent best. Hence, there was no world record, but he cleared the bar in his first attempts at 5.50m, 5.80m, 5.90m, and 6.00m before three misses at 6.10m.
It was a rare sight in the men’s pole vault event when Duplantis had a competition, probably for the first time since the Paris Olympics, as Emmanouil Karalis of Greece, the bronze medallist from last year’s Summer Games, also crossed the bar at 6.00m. However, he finished in second after clearing the height in his third attempt.
The Paris Olympic silver medallist Sam Kendricks of America finished third, having retired from the competition, after missing one at 6.00m. However, he did clear the 5.80m and 5.90m, the latter one, albeit after one miss. The Swedish-American pole vaulter now has five Diamond League titles in the discipline, just two fewer than Renaud Lavillenie and Christian Taylor. Duplantis admitted that he wasn’t feeling all great on Wednesday but was glad to get over the line and clinch Gold.
“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,” Duplantis said.
“Street events like today, I love it. I have five Diamond trophies now, Renaud Lavillenie has seven, so I am getting closer,” he added.
On the other hand, Katie Moon won the women’s pole vault title, beating her fellow American Sandi Morris, clearing the 4.82m mark in her sixth attempt as she fine-tuned her preparations for her world championship crown defence in Tokyo next month. This was Moon’s second Diamond League trophy.