Swedish double Olympic pole vault champion Armand “Mondo” Duplantis on Sunday increased his own world record again, clearing 6.28m to the delight of a home crowd at the Stockholm Diamond League meeting.
With victory in the event already guaranteed, Duplantis broke the world record for the 12th time as he sailed over the bar at the first attempt to improve on his 6.27m effort at Clermont-Ferrand, France, in February.
The 25-year-old ripped off his shirt in celebration and raced down the track in front of jubilant spectators at the Olympic Stadium built for the 1912 Games.
Photo: AFP
“It’s a magical feeling, it’s hard to explain,” said Duplantis, who had not before broken the record in Sweden. “I wanted this so bad. I wanted to do this in front of everybody here in Stockholm. It felt like really something special in the crowd today and I knew that everybody really wanted to see it, too.”
“It’ll be one of the greatest memories for me, I think, in my career,” he said.
Duplantis notched up his 37th victory in 41 Diamond League outings, finishing well ahead of Australia’s Kurtis Marschall, who managed a best of 5.90m.
The US-born Duplantis was in a class of his own in another punishing display of vaulting of the highest order.
“I kept saying it was the only thing I was missing in the accolades, to break a record in Sweden,” he said. “I’ve checked off pretty much everything now.”
Duplantis is the heavy favorite for a third successive world championship gold in Tokyo later this year. He is also a three-time indoor world champion.
He first broke the world record in 2020 when he surpassed the 6.16m mark set by Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie.
Duplantis intends to push the bar even higher after his Stockholm exploits.
“I’m going to jump higher. There’s not much between me and 6.30, technically. It’s just a few centimeters. I’m just a perfect day away from it,” he said.
Olympic champion Julien Alfred won the women’s 100m in 10.75 seconds, the second-fastest time of the year. It was only her second race of the season following her victory in Oslo on Thursday.
Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith took second (10.93) ahead of Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith (11.00).
Two-time Olympic bronze medalist Femke Bol won the women’s 400m hurdles in a season’s best time of 52.11 seconds. She finished ahead of American Dalilah Muhammad (52.91) and Panama’s Gianna Woodruff (53.99).
“I am not in my best shape yet, so to take the victory is especially good,” Bol said. “A race is never the same as training and it is only my third race of the season ... but I am starting to feel the hurdles better every race and getting into race shape. It is such a high level at the moment in the hurdles, so I am very excited going forward towards the world championships.”
The 2025 International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness (IFBB) Mr Universe Chinese Taipei competition began yesterday at Xinzhuang Gymnasium in New Taipei City, with more than 150 athletes showcasing their physiques. It is the first time in 16 years that the IFBB has held a competition in Taiwan, the last being the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung. The professional bodybuilding contest is bringing together athletes from Taiwan and 16 other countries, including Malaysia, Japan, the US, France and Mexico. IFBB Chinese Taipei president Hsu An-chin said in an interview yesterday that the event came to Taiwan thanks to his lobbying efforts at last
Shohei Ohtani on Wednesday homered for the fifth consecutive game, tying a Los Angeles Dodgers franchise record. Yankees star Aaron Judge was the last player to homer in five consecutive games, accomplishing that feat last year. Ohtani, who leads the National League with 37 home runs, homered in the first inning off Minnesota Twins starter Chris Paddack. He hit a slow curveball 134m to center. He carried the bat midway down the first-base line and then did a bat flip. He did not hit a home run later in the game with the Dodgers trailing, but his presence was felt. With two outs
Top seeds Alexander Zverev of Germany and American Coco Gauff on Tuesday advanced to the third round of the Canadian Open after both players were pushed hard by their opponents. World No. 3 Zverev, playing in his first match since his first-round loss at Wimbledon, was far from his best, but emerged with a 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 win over Adam Walton under the lights in Toronto. Momentum shifted firmly in Zverev’s favor when he won a 52-shot rally in the first set tiebreak and he sealed the win on a double fault by the Australian in the second set. “It was a very
Ben O’Connor won Thursday’s monster Alpine stage to the ski resort of Courchevel as three-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar responded to attacks from Jonas Vingegaard and dropped him to cement his grip on the yellow jersey. With just three stages left before the race ends in Paris, Pogacar looks poised to retain his title, with a comfortable lead of more than 4 minutes over Vingegaard, a two-time champion. Stage 18 featured three extremely difficult ascents, including the 26.4km climb of the Col de La Loze to the finish. At 2,304m, La Loze is the highest summit in this year’s Tour. Two
RSS