BUDAPEST, Hungary (Kashmir English): Mondo Duplantis of Sweden again broke his own pole vault world record, the 13th time, with a clearance of 6.29 metres at the Hungarian Grand Prix meeting few days back.
It was the 13th time that Duplantis set a new world mark as he continues to defy gravity.
The double-Olympic champion maintained his reputation of improving on his previous record by one centimetre, with his second attempt at the Istvan Gyulai Memorial overhauling the mark he set in Stockholm in June.
The Swedish athlete had looked a little off his best form, missing his first attempt at 6.11 and, after Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis retired having failed twice at the same height, the Swedish had the bar raised to make his usual world record attempt.
The 25-year-old twice world champion failed on his first try and while he disturbed the bar slightly on his second attempt, Duplantis looked up almost in disbelief to see he had again reached a new height in the sport he dominates.
“I love Hungary very much. The track is very good, I love the crowd, I would like to return, thank you,” Duplantis said.
Duplantis, who had won his second world title at the same stadium in 2023, ran straight to the crowd to celebrate with his partner Desire Inglander and his family.
A day earlier, Duplantis missed most of the press conference ahead of the Budapest meeting, apologising when he turned up late, saying he had a lot of work to do on his time management.
“I think I’ll have to make up for it tomorrow with a big leap,” Duplantis said.
The two-time world champion duly stayed true to his word to the delight of the Budapest crowd, and has now risen 15 centimetres higher than Sergey Bubka, who Duplantis once described as ‘mythological’.
Duplantis first broke the world record in 2020
The American-born first broke the world record in 2020 in Poland, with his leap of 6.17 surpassing by one centimetre the previous record set by Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie six years back. Lavillenie had beaten Bubka’s best jump of 6.14, which had stood for almost 20 years.
