Duplantis soars to 11th pole vault world record

New Delhi: Swedish pole-vault champion Armand Duplantis has been on song for the past five years. On Friday night, the 25-year-old released his first song “Bop” under his nickname “Mondo” and then broke the world record for the 11th time with his own music playing in the background.

Duplantis cleared 6.27m at the All Star Perche meet in Clermont-Ferrand, France, improving his mark by a centimetre. The double Olympic and world champion has reigned supreme since breaking the world record for the first time in February 2020, clearing 6.17m in a meet in Poland.

He bettered the world mark twice that year, thrice in 2022, twice in 2023 and thrice last year. Duplantis is creeping up on the record held by former pole vault great Sergey Bubka, who broke the world record 17 times in a 10-year span from 1984. Bubka, the first man to clear 6 metres, took it to 6.14m, at Sestriere, Italy in 1994.

Duplantis, who set the previous record of 6.26m in Silesia, Poland last August, cleared 6.27m in his first attempt. Setting the tone this early in the year means the Swede is sure to take it to further heights in the build-up to the World Championships in Tokyo in September.

“I just felt really good,” Duplantis told reporters. “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.”

Emmanouil Karalis of Greece was second with a national record 6.02m as six men cleared 5.91m or higher for the first time in a competition.

His song played over the sound system during his record 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,” he said.

Duplantis has held the world record since he broke Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie’s record of 6.16m, set in 2014, at a meet in Poland five years ago. Much like how Bubka did, the Swede has improved the record by just one centimetre every time.

On Friday, Duplantis entered the contest at 5.65m, clearing that height, 5.91m and 6.02m on the first attempt. He won the competition by clearing 6.07m before having the bar set at 6.27m. Clermont-Ferrand is also the venue where he set one of his previous records, clearing 6.22m in 2023.

Last August, Duplantis cleared a world record 6.25m to retain the Olympic title in Paris and took it up a centimetre in a meet in Poland 20 days later.