World Athletics Ultimate Championship - Budapest: Day One (© Getty Images)
Swedish star Mondo Duplantis cleared 6.20m to add another pole vault title to his remarkable collection at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship Budapest 26 on Friday (11).
Vaulting to the sounds of his own song Gold, the Ultimate Anthem which he wrote and recorded, Duplantis achieved a perfect scorecard up to his winning height and went on to attempt a world record of 6.32m.
That would have been his 16th world record and while it wasn’t to be on a chilly Friday evening at the Gyula Zsivotzky National Athletics Centre, the 26-year-old had the title secured – adding the Ultimate crown to his two Olympic titles, three world gold medals and four world indoor wins.
Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis fought hard in an attempt to beat him, soaring clear at 6.15m, but that remained his best and so the recent Diamond League champion finished second ahead of Norway’s Sondre Guttormsen (5.95m). Guttormsen finished third on countback as he cleared the same height as Kurtis Marschall and Zach Bradford, making it just the second competition in history, and the first outdoors, in which five athletes cleared 5.95m or higher.
Budapest is where Duplantis claimed the second of his world titles and set the 13th of his world records and he enjoyed an emphatic return. Competing for the first time since withdrawing from the Diamond League Final due to some tightness in his leg, he opened his campaign at 5.60m and cleared that first time.
Duplantis then passed at 5.80m and cleared 5.95m, 6.05m and 6.15m, all also on his first attempts, but he still had Karalis for company.
Karalis – who sits second on the world all-time list with 6.20m achieved in Zurich – later explained how he had been dealing with a small issue with his leg and back, but he cleared 6.05m on his third and final attempt to keep his dream alive. Like Duplantis, he also cleared 6.15m on his first try but his campaign came to an end after one attempt at 6.20m and two at 6.25m.
With the win secured, Duplantis skipped straight to 6.32m, receiving good luck wishes from Sergey Bubka during a crowd interview with the Ukrainian pole vault great before Duplantis took his second attempt at the historic height.
"I approached this event with a combination of a lot of nerves and excitement," said Duplantis. "This was a missing piece for me, to become the Ultimate champion.
"With Manolo (Karalis), I just want to give a huge shout-out to him and his team, and give a big hats-off for what they accomplished throughout this year. Pole vault is always the most exicting event out there but it is totally different now.
"I'm going to sing the anthem (Gold) on Sunday, so now I will be enjoying the city and getting some sleep."
Jess Whittington for World Athletics
