XIAMEN – Armand Duplantis put down a marker ahead of this summer’s Paris Olympics, as the Swede broke his own pole vault world record with a 6.24m effort in the first Diamond League meeting of the 2024 season on April 20.
The 24-year-old bettered his previous mark of 6.23m set at the Eugene Diamond League finale in September, clearing the bar with ease before leaping up off the sponge mat below and racing off in celebration at his first outdoor event of 2024 in Xiamen, China.
It was the eighth time that he broke the world record, and he was the only man to clear 6m at the Egret Stadium.
“For me to jump a world record, I need everything to be in the right place. Everything (the lack of wind and great crowd energy) added up to what I needed for me to jump high today,” Duplantis said.
“It definitely felt like it was within reach... I obviously had some fire in me today.”
The Olympic and two-time world outdoor champion had added a second world indoor title to his impressive resume in March, and he is set to head into his second Games in July and August as the firm favourite.
Before his latest feat, Duplantis fired out a warning shot to any potential rivals, stating with his trademark confidence that now was the time to aim for some big heights with the Olympics approaching.
“My form is good,” he said. “It’s about that time to start having to get into really good form for Paris.
“I just try to get the most out of myself every single competition and I hope that it ends up in a world-record attempt or a record.”
American Sam Hendricks, who finished second in Xiamen with a best of 5.82m, a massive 42cm adrift, said Duplantis has got “God’s hand on his back”.
“I’ve seen him from a 14-year-old come all the way up and it makes me actually ever joyous to be even just second place behind the world-record holder because I know he works so darned hard,” he said. “He’s becoming the true champion we all want him to be.”
In other athletics news, Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele has said that Kelvin Kiptum will always have a special place at the London Marathon after the Kenyan died in a tragic car accident in February.
The 41-year-old is gearing up for the latest edition of the race on April 21. But the event will be overshadowed by the absence of long-distance runner Kiptum, who set a London Marathon record time of 2hr 1min 25sec last season.
“Kelvin of course all of us miss him. Even within his short time, he has been setting an amazing history,” he said. “The course record is also under his name.” REUTERS, AFP
