Lausanne, (APP – UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 22nd Aug, 2024) Armand Duplantis picked up where he left off in his world record and gold medal display at the Paris Olympics by dominating the pole vault male in Lausanne. The Diamond League meeting on Wednesday.
The meeting is the first on the elite circuit of world athletics since the end of the Paris Games.
Duplantis defended his Olympic gold at the Stade de France in style, bettering his own world record to 6.25 metres.
In Lausanne, the Swede took part in a City Event held on an esplanade bordering Lac Leman — better known in English as Lake Geneva — 24 hours before the main fare at the Stade Olympic de la Pontaise.
The track was raised outside the tiled walkway, with thousands of fans packed in a few meters away, the bar and the landing mat placed under a circular canvas, large screens that allow even more passers-by a view of the events.
It was once more Duplantis roads ahead of the competition, winning with a best lap of 6.15 meters.
“I’m really happy about it. I had a great time. It was really nice to get out on the track,” Duplantis said.
“I don’t want to say I was worried, but it’s always a question mark, I guess, the next meet after something like the Olympics, mentally.
“The last two weeks, it’s been hard to wake up. Not in a mental way, not in that way, but very tired mentally, just tired, even this morning.”
Duplantis said the difference between Olympic gold at the Stade de France and winning an event in the city was miles apart but strangely comparable.
“My last contest, I had like 75,000 people watching me,” he said.
“But you have such a cool connection with the crowd when they’re so close to you, it’s just more of that kind of personal feeling.”
Duplantis added: “It’s just a really cool thing. It’s a really amazing thing and I just love these kinds of events.
“It’s really a great thing for our sport and a great thing for auction jumping.
“
– Perfect conditions required –
Only the US-born Swede and the American Sam Kendricks, the silver medalist in Paris, managed to pass 5.92m, the four after everyone saw their evening’s work stop at 5, 82.
The bar was raised to 6.00m, Kendricks failing on his first attempt, but Duplantis sailing clear.
The American won the 2019 world gold ahead of Duplantis, since the Swede has dominated the discipline in a way rarely seen on track and field.
Two more failures at the 6m barrier left only Duplantis in the competition, as is so often the case.
The bar rose to 6.15m, to rapturous applause from the massive crowd around the track.
He hit the bar with his knee on his first attempt, sinking to the mat in disappointment.
With six minutes between each time limit allowed, Duplantis took to the track for his second effort as the wind picked up to complicate matters.
And he slipped in the race, he failed to plant the pole. As he fell to the mat, Duplantis quickly sat up and flashed a thumbs up.
Duplantis went for it on his third attempt, setting a new meet record and celebrating like the true competitor he is, ripping his shirt free of his shorts and yelling in triumph.
“I felt like after the 6m jump I knew I had something higher in me,” he said.
“I don’t really know what’s going to happen after jumping six meters, usually, but we were a bit unlucky with the wind today.
“And I need, especially now, after not really training in two weeks, perfect conditions if I can jump a world record again this year.”
Also among the field was Renaud Lavillenie, the 2012 Olympic champion and former world record holder who failed to qualify for what would have been his home Games.
The 37-year-old finished eighth with a best lap of 5.72m.
(Except translation, this story has not been edited by pipanews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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