Sweden’s pole vault superstar Mondo Duplantis has made a habit of breaking records.
After improving his own world record to 6.20m at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade in March, the 22-year-old got off to a flying start to his outdoor campaign, setting a meeting record with a first-time clearance of 6.02m to ease to win in Doha, yesterday.
The men’s pole vault event of the Ooredoo Doha Meeting held at the Suheim Bin Hamad Stadium on Friday was postponed due to high winds and took place indoors at the Aspire Dome.
Duplantis was in blazing form as he dominated the competition, with nine competitors in fray for the title.
The Olympic champion cleared his opening height of 5.61m on his first attempt and went on to pass at 5.71m before clearing 5.81m, also on first attempts. The Swede already sealed the victory at that height as America’s KC Lightfoot and Chris Nilsen, Belgium’s Ben Broeders and Valentin Lavillenie of France failed to go higher after clearing 5.71m.
Duplantis then set the meeting mark after raising the bar to 6.02m, which he cleared on his first attempt again to better the record of 5.82m, set by USA’s two-time world champion Sam Kendricks in 2020.
However, he failed to clear 6.12m in all his three attempts to end the competition.
“I am just glad we were able to jump indoors,” said Duplantis, who leapt six metres or higher for 32nd time in a competition.
Meanwhile, Lightfoot secured second position on countback, thanks to his first-time clearances of 5.41m, 5.61m and 5.71m, while Broeders finished third.
Qatar’s Olympic champion Mutaz Barshim and America’s Olympic silver medallist Raven Saunders attended pole vault action from the stands at Aspire Dome.
The 13-meeting Diamond League series will now move to Birmingham event, which will take place on Saturday.
