A little further into the stratosphere and into the history of sport, Armand Duplantis crossed the 6.30 meter mark in the pole vault on Monday in the final of the World Championships in Tokyo, improving the world record for the 14th time. How far will the Swedish genius stop? Never has the colorful British expression “Sky is the limit” – which could be translated as “no limit except the sky” – been so appropriate to a sportsman whose specialty is to rise into the air. And to imagine the flight beyond 6.40 m and even dream of 6.50 m.
The fact is that in just five years, “Mondo” has accustomed the world to his exploits centimeter by centimeter, whatever the stage, Olympic Games, meetings, World Championships, outdoors, indoors… And we never tire of it.
“You have to admire, savor. It’s exceptional to experience this. He broke the barrier of 6.20 m, now that of 6.30 m. He is the greatest athlete in all disciplines. There’s not one that comes close to his ankle. He pushes the limits,” testified his friend Renaud Lavillenie, not resentful of having seen the prodigy erase his 6.16 m from the shelves one evening in February 2020.
Success on his third attempt
The humidity of Tokyo did not slow down his momentum. But first he had to sort out current affairs and secure the world title, his third. What he did by being the only one to cross 6.15 m, before a failed poker attempt at 6.20 m from the Greek Emmanouil Karalis, a fine 2nd who crossed 6 meters or more for the 12th time this season.
Once the Tokyo national stadium was all to himself, Duplantis demanded the applause of the public in an enclosure that sounded so hollow four years ago, during his first Olympic coronation, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. First try, narrowly missed. The second too.
Very concentrated, with his eyes closed, he sits on his bench next to his friend Karalis, who blows him air with a portable fan to give him wings. And finally comes the jubilation at the third attempt, like at the Stade de France (6.25 m) at the last Olympics, where he conjured the “apocalyptic” memory, in his own words, of his Olympic coronation without a spectator to celebrate with three years earlier.
The pole vaulter exults, embraces his comrades on the podium, the silver medalist of the evening Karalis (6 m) and the bronze medalist of the Australian Kurtis Marschall (5.95 m). “I think he wanted to do it here and you could see it in his eyes, he was going to cross the bar, that was for sure,” said the latter in the mixed zone.
Duplantis then greeted each side of the Tokyo stadium, before languorously kissing his fiancée Desiré Inglander, to the sound of “Gimme Gimme Gimme” by the group Abba, all screaming bass.
The pole vault competition, remarkably dense with seven pole vaulters at 5.90 m or more, did not lack strong images. Notably the emotion of Sam Kendricks, at the foot of the wall after two missed jumps, before clearing 5.95 m and running, carried away by childish joy, as if he had also broken the record, before wiping away a few tears, congratulated by veteran Renaud Lavillenie.
