The Swedish vaulter Armand Duplantis, 22, broke this Monday (7), in Belgrade, the world record for the pole vault in indoor competitions.
“Mondo”, as the athlete is known, jumped 6.19 m, surpassing the 6.18 m mark he had set in February 2020.
Duplantis is also the record holder in outdoor competitions. The Swede jumped 6.15 m in September 2020, during the Diamond League stage, and surpassed the mark of Ukrainian legend Sergei Bubka, who recorded 6.14 m in 1994.
Mondo had been chasing the 6.19 m for some time. At the Tokyo Olympics last year, he sought to break the record, but he fell in the two attempts he made with the bat at that point. Anyway, he secured the Olympic gold medal in his first participation in the Games.
In February of this year, at the indoor meeting in Birmingham, England, he also climbed the bar to reach 6.19 m, but failed in all three attempts. Still, he was the champion, with 6.05 m.
“It’s about time, this time brought me more problems than any other in my life. I’m proud to have overcome it”, said the Swede after reaching the record.
This Monday, at the indoor meeting in Belgrade, Duplantis passed the first bar at 5.61 m, at 5.85 m and also at 6.00 m. By securing the title, he tried to reach the much-desired mark and jumped into eternity once again.
His first record break came two years ago, when he recorded 6.17 m in Poland to surpass the mark of his idol, Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie, in indoor competitions. A week later, in Scotland, he reached 6.18 m, surpassing his own mark.
His first records came before the start of the pandemic, which forced him (as well as the whole world) to go into quarantine, partially putting a brake on his development.
From March until the first week of June 2020, Mondo had to remain at home in the US state of Louisiana, without being able to use sports facilities to train. The solution for not getting out of rhythm was to travel to his parents’ house in Sweden and adapt a jumping track in the backyard.
It was exactly like that, jumping in the backyard since he was a child, that he began his relationship with the sport. His father, Greg, was also a pole vaulter and introduced him to the sport.
“I never thought I would use that yard again, haven’t used it since I was 15 years old. It was there that I discovered my love for pole vaulting, and that constant repetition helps me with my jump today. Using those facilities was nostalgic. I had just won a world record and I realized that I went from the record to the backyard”, said Duplantis in an interview with sheet two years ago.
The adaptation and limitations imposed by the pandemic, however, were not able to stop the growth curve of the Swede, who was born and raised in the United States.
In September of the same year, after training on the track set up with the help of his father, the athlete traveled to Rome to compete in a stage of the Diamond League. He jumped 6.15 meters and set the highest mark in history in outdoor competitions, surpassing Sergei Bubka’s 6.14 m.
“I don’t think anyone can jump anymore [alto] that I. But there’s a way to go, there are higher heights, and I’m going to keep trying to raise the bar as far as people think it’s possible,” Duplantis said in 2020.
For now, the Swede remains right. Nobody can jump higher than he can.
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