MAGICAL MONDO: Duplantis soars, shatters own record

CLERMONT-FERRAND, France (AFP) — Swedish Olympic champion Armand Duplantis broke his own world record on Friday at the All-Star Pole Vault in Clermont-Ferrand, France and then promoted another type of record.

After securing victory in the competition by clearing a bar at 6.07 meters, Duplantis then took aim at the world record, raising the bar to 6.27m and clearing it at the first attempt.

“I just felt really good,” the vaulter known as “Mondo” said. “What can I say, I came here to do it. I put everything in place to do it. The run-up worked really well. I just did it.”

“Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it’s not, but there’s a lot of hard work, hardship, bad days, good days, everything in between that gets you to the easier moments,” he said, adding that breaking the world record remained exhilarating.

“It’s always special. It’s a crazy feeling every time. It’s like a feeling of euphoria. It’s hard to explain.”

It was the 11th time he had broken the record by one centimetre since first claiming it with a leap of 6.16m in February 2020.

Duplantis made sure that his song “Bop” — released just in time for the meet — was playing in the arena.

“That was my song that was playing,” the breathless Duplantis said immediately after the jump.

“When I made this song a couple of months ago, I thought this would be a perfect song to jump to here. That’s why I rushed it out.”

It was “playing in the background, everything, exactly as I’d imagined it in my head, so we can’t complain,” he said.

“I thought maybe I wasn’t going to be serious about jumping on my own song. It seemed almost funny to me. But when I heard it on the speakers, I thought it sounded good. I thought it sounded really good and it put me in a good frame of mind,” he added at the press conference.

But the Louisiana-born athlete declined to sing.

“Now my voice is messed up because I’ve been yelling,” he said.

This is the second time that Duplantis, 25, has improved his mark in Clermont-Ferrand. He jumped 6.22m in the event in February 2023.

“I’m going to enjoy this right now, I’m going to have a good time tonight and enjoy it,” he said.

Duplantis had set the previous record of 6.26m at a Diamond League meeting in Chorzow, Poland on 25 August 2024.

That was just a few weeks after he earned Olympic gold in Paris with his ninth world record of 6.25m.

On Friday, Duplantis and Emmanouil Karalis, the Olympic bronze medallist, both cleared 6.02m. The Greek jumper then decided “not to take risks” after feeling cramps and withdrew.

Duplantis broke the tie by clearing 6.07m and immediately raised the bar to 20 centimeters.

The All-Star Pole Vault meeting was the second of the season for Duplantis, who made his return to competition in Berlin on 14 February by jumping 6.10m.

He had opted to compete in Clermont and skip the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn in the Netherlands on 6 to 9 March.

“I just love it here,” Duplantis said.

“I love the atmosphere here. I jump really well here. Everyone jumps really well here. This is why I didn’t go to Europe.”

He will jump again on 13 March in Uppsala, Sweden, in a meeting he is organising, before going to the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing in China on 21-23 March.

Asked when he’ll break 6.30, Duplantis answered “28, 29” first.