American-born Swede Armand “Mondo” Duplantis soared to another pole vault world record on Saturday as he easily cleared 6.18 metres at the World Athletics Glasgow Indoor Grand Prix.
The 20-year-old, a world silver medallist, had set the previous mark last Saturday by clearing 6.17m in Torun, Poland.
That eclipsed by one centimetre Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie’s record set in February 2014 in Donetsk, Ukraine.
With the Glasgow crowd roaring him on, Duplantis cleared the bar in almost languid fashion before climbing off the mat, crossing his arms across his chest and milking the applause.
Incredibly, it was his first attempt at the height in the meeting and he nailed it with room to spare.
World champion Sam Kendricks was a distant second with a 5.75m clearance.
Duplantis is the son of an American pole vaulter.
He grew up with a pole vault pit in his garden at home in Louisiana, and was vaulting higher than a London double decker bus as a teenager.
At 17 he had already cleared 5.90m.
Now the sky seems to be the limit for the exciting talent who is already targeting Olympic gold in Tokyo.
“There are a lot of reasons why this event is so complicated and so many things go into making a good jump,” Duplantis, who goes by the his schoolboy nickname Mondo, later said.
“So many years of hard work go into this, but when you do it right it seems simple.”
“Safe to say I feel good, I feel fast and strong on the runway. I’m excited for the outdoor season, and the Olympics is where I want to be the best.”
Duplantis received a 30,000 dollars bonus from World Athletics for his world record.
Sergey Bubka’s 6.14m mark in 1994 remains the highest outdoor clearance, but the IAAF has not distinguished between indoor and outdoor records in pole vault since 2000.
