Two of the world’s best pole vaulters — Armand “Mondo” Duplantis and Ernest John Obiena — posted contrasting results in the Diamond League meet in Oslo on Friday morning (Manila time).

Duplantis, the reigning Olympic champion and No. 1 in the world, soared to a new meet record of 6.15 meters to secure the gold medal in another spectacular display of vaulting prowess.

“I am very satisfied,” said Duplantis after setting a new meet record.

“To get a stadium record here was in my plans after a few visits here with difficult conditions.”

“It was great to finally get the right conditions tonight.”

The US-born Swede remains head and shoulders above the rest, having bettered his own world record to 6.27m in February on the back of a 2024 season when he not only won Olympic gold but also broke the world record three times.

Duplantis has also registered the 11 highest jumps in the history of the sport, improving the world record one centimeter at a time from 6.17 to 6.27.

He is the undisputed king of the event and was also named Laureus World Sportsman of the Year for 2024. Jamaican sprint legend Usain Bolt is the only track and field athlete to have previously won the award.

On the contrary, Obiena hardly made noise.

The Filipino superstar, who occupied the No. 2 spot behind Duplantis before dropping to No. 4 following a fourth-place finish in the Paris Olympics, finished dead last after failing to clear the bar in his three attempts that resulted to a NM or no mark — a technical term for an athlete who failed to register a valid jump.

Obiena was given a final marking of 5.62m.

It was such a sorry performance for the 29-year-old Obiena, who is coming from a title-clinching performance in the Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea.

“For everyone confused with the result. No Heighted…. This is sports sometimes,” Obiena said in a social media post shortly after posting one of his ugliest performances in his international career.

Aside from Obiena, also bombing out early in the 10-strong field were home hope Sondre Guttormsen and Belgium’s Ben Broeders, who also both failed to get past the 5.62m barrier.

Duplantis skipped 5.72m along with Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis, but another trio of vaulters failed to clear the mark: American Sam Kendricks, Dutchman Menno Vloon and Turkey’s Ersu Sasma.

France’s 2012 Olympic gold medallist Renaud Lavillenie snuck through on his last attempt, but promptly withdrew from competition.

Duplantis and Karalis cleared 5.82m at their first time of asking, but it proved a height too far for Australian Kurtis Marschall.

That left just Duplantis and his Greek rival in the competition, but the latter had three failed efforts at 5.92m after the Swede had gone clear.

With that, Duplantis and the bar was raised to 6.03m, one-centimeter more than the meet record he set in 2022.

He needed three attempts, but did it on the third to wild applause from the 15,000-strong crowd at the Bislett Stadium.

The bar went up to 6.15m and he passed on the second go, but called it a night as temperatures dipped in Oslo.

“It did get cooler so that was why I stopped jumping,” he said.

“On Sunday in Stockholm it would be an absolute dream to break the world record. In fact I could retire if I do! At the moment the forecast is good for Sunday and I am feeling good, I am in good shape and tonight I am jumping well so who knows, it may be possible.”

“I need to build on tonight and get ready now for the big one.”