Armand Duplantis broke his own pole vault world record once again as he cleared 6.26 metres at the second attempt at the Silesia Diamond League meeting, on Sunday. He broke the world record for the 10th time in his career, surpassing the 6.25 metres he cleared after retaining his Olympic gold medal in Paris 2024. In Poland, he also raised the bar to 6.26, bagging victory at 6.0 metres.
Speaking after his historic feat, he told Reuters, “This year I focused on the Olympics, the record just came naturally because I was in good shape. So I am not surprised with the record today, but I am thankful.”
“It almost feels weird and unnatural to get so much love and support from the crowds when I compete. I see that especially in Poland. The energy in this stadium just keeps getting better every year. My first world record also came in Poland, indoors in Torun (in 2020), so I have great memories from here,” he added.
Meanwhile, Paris 2024 silver medallist Sam Kendricks of the USA got past 6.00 metres, before failing to get past 6.08 and had to settle for second position. Meanwhile, Paris 2024 bronze medallist Emmanouil Karalis (Greece) came third.
What happened at Paris Olympics 2024
At the Stade de France in Paris, he sent the entire crowd into meltdown during the Olympics, when he cleared 6.25 metres. Just as he broke the record, he ran the stands to hig his gorlfriend. “It’s hard to understand, honestly,” he said.
“If I don’t beat this moment in my career, then I’m pretty OK with that. I don’t think you can get much better than what just happened,” he added. Following Paris 2024, he went on a vacation to Greece.
Also praising the Paris crowd, he said, “I tried to clear my thoughts as much as I could. The crowd was going crazy. It was so loud in there, it sounded like an American football game. I have a little bit of experience being in a 100,000-capacity stadium, but I was never the centre of attention. [I was] just trying to channel the energy everybody was giving me, and they were giving me a lot of it. It worked out.”