AERIAL DUEL: Duplantis edges Karalis in dramatic showdown

AERIAL DUEL: Duplantis edges Karalis in dramatic showdown | Daily Tribune

NANJING, China (AFP) — Sweden’s Armand “Mondo” Duplantis won a third world indoor pole vault title in Nanjing on Saturday after a gripping, high-class battle with Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis.

Duplantis vaulted a best of 6.15 meters for gold, his seventh global title, but was made to work all the way by Karalis, who took silver with a new personal best of 6.05m.

American Sam Kendricks rounded out the podium with a best of 5.90m.

“You don’t usually find yourself in a situation where you’re jumping with somebody at 6.15 so that’s super cool,” Duplantis said.

“That’s good for the sport and good for me. It was intense, it was tough, it was a hard fought competition which I think is nice.”

“Sometimes you’ve got to get dirty and grind. And I had to grind today.”

Duplantis, 25, sat out the opening height of 5.50m, along with Karalis.

The rest of the 12-strong field competed, although France’s Thibaut Collet needed two bites of the cherry and teammate Baptiste Thiery, who had posted the joint fourth highest vault this season coming into China, failed in his three attempts as he went out early.

The height then moved up 20 centimeters to 5.70m and Duplantis garnered the first audience “woos” of the evening as he sailed well clear.

Karalis joined the competition and also went over at the first time of asking.

They were joined by Kendricks, Australian Kurtis Marschall, Dutch vaulter Menno Vloon, Norway’s Sondre Guttormsen and Turkey’s Ersu Sasma.

But it proved too high for Collet, home hope Li Chenyang, Latvian Valters Kreiss and German Bo Kanda Lita Baehre, who all bowed out.

Duplantis skipped 5.80m as the field further diminished with the exit of Guttormsen. Then went Vloon, Marschall and Sasma in quick succession.

The United States-born Swede, Karalis and Kendricks all then cleared 5.90m as the competition moved to the business end.

Duplantis sailed over 6.00m at the first time of asking, with Kendricks failing but guaranteeing himself of bronze with a best of 5.90m. Karalis cleared 5.95m for silver but skipped through to 6.05m.

Duplantis was first up and floated over for his 100th vault over the mythical six-meter mark.

To put that century mark into perspective, Ukrainian vaulting legend and former world record holder Sergey Bubka achieved it just 45 times in his storied career.

“Over 100 jumps over 6m, it’s great, it’s a magical barrier that I want to clear in my career, and to be able to do it so many times, it’s hard to comprehend, really,” Duplantis said.

Karalis, with “Zorba’s Dance” booming out over the tannoy, then delighted the crowd by also going clear, improving his personal record by 3cm.

Up the bar went to 6.10m. Then came a first failure for Duplantis. Karalis also dragged the bar down on his first attempt.

But Duplantis went clear on his second effort, the screaming Swede punching the air at his success.

Back boomed Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis’ catchy taverna number, but Karalis was nowhere near.

The bar went up another 5cm and a chest-pumping Duplantis made no mistake at 6.15m.

That left Karalis with one effort, but it was too far as a valiant attempt at providing Duplantis with some real face-to-face competition ended.

The Swede immediately took off his spikes in a sure indication there would be no tilt at a 12th world record after a heady night’s rivalry.