As this extraordinary year draws to a close, we look back at the key moments of 2020 in each area of the sport. The series continues today with a review of the jumping disciplines.
&nbsp;
<h3>Men&rsquo;s high jump</h3>
While Covid-19 seems to have impacted this event in a big way, performance levels were already down before the pandemic struck.
Five athletes shared an indoor world lead of 2.33m earlier in the year, the lowest world indoor lead in 37 years. Outdoors, only one jumper, 22-year-old Maksim Nedasekau from Belarus, jumped 2.33m &ndash; the lowest world lead for 39 years.
Indoors Britain&rsquo;s Tom Gale jumped well, winning two big Czech meetings and clearing 2.30m at three successive outings, topped by a 2.33m personal best in Hustopeče. Cuban Luis Zayas won the third big indoor meet in Slovakia in Bansk&aacute; Bystrica with a 2.33m personal best. Bahamian Jamal Wilson also set a 2.33m PB for second place at that same meet.
The two other jumpers over 2.33m indoors were USA&rsquo;s Darryl Sullivan and Russia&rsquo;s Ilya Ivanyuk.
&nbsp;
<h3>Women&rsquo;s high jump</h3>
This event has belonged to Mariya Lasitskene for some years now and 2020 looked to be the same as she opened with 2.04m and 2.05m in early February. The three-time world outdoor and two-time world indoor champion looked well on her way to this year securing the sole major title &ndash; the Olympics &ndash; she still was missing.
But with no Olympics, that dream had to be postponed and outdoors she only had a couple of national competitions in September which she won comfortably at 1.92m and 1.97m.
The international outdoor scene was instead dominated by Lasitskene&rsquo;s two toughest challengers last year, Ukraine&rsquo;s Yuliya Levchenko and Yaroslava Mahuchikh, the 2017 and 2019 world silver medallists respectively.
The young Ukrainians both cleared 2.00m once, never lost to anyone else and occupied the top two places in Monaco, Bydgoszcz, Stockholm, Dessau and Rome with Levchenko prevailing in their head-to-head record, 3-2.
Australias&rsquo;s 2013 world U18 champion Eleanor Patterson displayed her best ever jumping in January and February, improving her seven-year-old PB by three centimetres with a national record of 1.99m. She passed on the European season where her compatriot Nicola McDermott instead impressed with consistent jumping, including a 1.98m PB.
Conspicuously, the top US jumpers were nowhere to be seen outdoors in 2020. The top US mark this year was 1.85m by 16-year-old high schooler Alyssa Jones.
&nbsp;
<h3>Men&rsquo;s pole vault</h3>
Despite the oddness of 2020, it was a good season for men&rsquo;s pole vault &ndash; mainly thanks to Mondo Duplantis.
The super Swede was in terrific form, setting two world records during the indoor season. The 21-year-old won all of his 16 competitions in 2020 and cleared 6.00m or higher on 10 occasions, tying Sergey Bubka&rsquo;s 1991 record for the most six-metre competitions in one season.
Following a 6.00m national indoor record in D&uuml;sseldorf in February in his first competition of the year, Duplantis&rsquo;s first world record came in Toruń four days later. He cleared 6.17m on his second attempt to surpass Renaud Lavillenie&rsquo;s 6.16m from 2014. Exactly one week later, the Swede added one centimetre to his record with a first-time clearance of 6.18m in Glasgow. 
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 Duplantis has now achieved 18 clearances at 6.00m or higher, putting him third on the list of history&rsquo;s most prolific six-metre vaulters, behind Sergey Bubka (46) and Renaud Lavillenie (20).
Two-time world champion Sam Kendricks was the other vaulter over six metres in 2020. He did it both indoors and outdoors, setting a North American indoor record of 6.01m in Rouen in February.
&nbsp;
<h3>Women&rsquo;s pole vault</h3>
The 2019 World Championships final had been the best ever competition in terms of depth with 4.80m necessary for a top-six finish. The 2020 indoor season strengthened the sense that the Olympic outdoor season would see the exclusive five-metre barrier become more commonplace. World gold and silver medallists Anzhelika Sidorova and Sandi Morris were especially impressive indoors as both had two 4.90m+ meets and another two at 4.80m+.
Then of course the outdoor season became very different and experienced vaulters like Katerina Stefanidi, Jenn Suhr and Yarisley Silva decided to skip it. But despite these absentees and the dearth of opportunities for direct international encounters, there was still quality vaulting.
USA&rsquo;s Katie Nageotte was one of the top performers in the discipline. Within just three weeks she put together five meets at 4.70m, 4.81m, 4.83m, 4.71m and 4.92m. The final mark elevated the 29-year-old to sixth on the world outdoor all-time list.
Having enjoyed some success earlier in her career, taking world U18 silver in 2009, Sweden&rsquo;s Michaela Meijer had often found herself in the shadow of compatriot Angelica Bengtsson. But on 1 August, two days after turning 27, Meijer reached a new level &ndash; quite literally. She took the national record from Bengtsson and advanced to equal 11th on the world all-time by clearing 4.83m, a PB by 11 centimetres.
&nbsp;
<h3>Men&rsquo;s long jump</h3>
The best jump of 2020 came during the indoor season, before the pandemic really took hold.
Cuba&rsquo;s world indoor champion Juan Miguel Echevarria leapt 8.41m at the World Athletics Indoor Tour meeting in Madrid. He jumped 8.08m one week later in Ulsteinvik and then had just one competition outdoors, winning the Cuban title with 8.25m.
China&rsquo;s 2015 world bronze medallist Wang Jianan produced the best jump outdoors, winning the Chinese title with 8.36m in Shaoxing in September. It&rsquo;s the shortest world lead since Greg Rutherford&rsquo;s 8.35m in 2012.
China&rsquo;s 2016 world indoor bronze medallist Huang Changzhou jumped 8.33m for second place at the Chinese Championships, while Japan&rsquo;s world U20 champion Yuki Hashioka jumped 8.29m in September.
World champion Tajay Gayle stayed home most of the season, but jumped a wind-assisted 8.52m in July in Kingston. Finland&rsquo;s Kristian Pulli, meanwhile, made a breakthrough to set a national record of 8.27m in June.
&nbsp;
<h3>Women&rsquo;s long jump</h3>
After her extraordinary 2019 season in which she was undefeated, became world champion, and had seven meetings at 7.00m or beyond, Germany&rsquo;s Malaika Mihambo had planned a restart of her career under the guidance of Carl Lewis in the USA.
Those plans had to be scrapped due to the pandemic, but Mihambo still produced the only seven-metre jumps in 2020: a 7.07m leap indoors and a 7.03m effort outdoors. And in most of her competitions this year, she competed off a shortened approach.
In terms of consistency, world silver medallist Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk was the top jumper. The Ukrainian won four indoor meetings, all with marks between 6.90m and 6.96m. Outdoors, all eight of her competitions ranked among the top 20 performances of the year.
Sweden&rsquo;s Khaddi Sagnia also showed great consistency. Sagnia had just two losses, which came at the Wanda Diamond League meetings in Stockholm and Doha where Bekh-Romanchuk on both occasions managed to squeeze by on her last attempt.
Italy&rsquo;s Larissa Iapichino at age 18 improved to 6.80m to further close in on her mother Fiona May, who was the 1988 world U20 champion before going on to amass seven senior global medals, including three golds.
The most successful long jumpers in recent years &ndash; Brittney Reese and Ivana Spanovic &ndash; focused on training in 2020. Reese didn&rsquo;t jump at all while Spanovic had one 6.80m outing.
&nbsp;
<h3>Men&rsquo;s triple jump</h3>
World bronze medallist Hugues Fabrice Zango continued his rise to the top of men&rsquo;s triple jumping in 2020. The Burkinabe jumper won seven of his eight competitions this year, and his 17.77m African indoor record from February ended up being the top mark of the entire year.
Outdoors the 27-year-old won the Gyulai Memorial in August and then suffered his only loss of the season in Ostrava to USA&rsquo;s multiple world and Olympic champion Christian Taylor, 17.46m to 17.42m. Taylor, now 30, also won in Berlin in September with 17.57m, an outdoor world lead.
Portugal&rsquo;s two-time world silver medallist Pedro Pablo Pichardo started his outdoor campaign with a wind-aided 17.40m in Lisbon in July, but didn&rsquo;t fully get into the groove and finished third at the Gyulai Memorial (17.28m) and fourth in Ostrava (16.88m). Pablo Torrijos set Spanish records both indoors (17.18m) and outdoors (17.09m).
&nbsp;
<h3>Women&rsquo;s triple jump</h3>
Venezuela&rsquo;s Yulimar Rojas was a surprise winner at the 2016 World Indoor Championships but in recent years she has gradually become the world&rsquo;s most dominant triple jumper.
Rojas started her 2020 campaign where she had ended 2019. First she became the eighth woman to jump beyond 15 metres indoors, leaping 15.03m in Metz. Just 12 days later, at the World Athletics Indoor Tour meeting in Madrid, Rojas improved another 40 centimetres to break the 16-year-old world indoor record by seven centimetres &ndash; a performance that eventually led to her being crowned the World Female Athlete of the Year. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Making 15.43m look easy. Yulimar Rojas in full flow on her way to breaking the triple jump world indoor record🤩 <a href="https://t.co/jlTu0KH5eY">pic.twitter.com/jlTu0KH5eY</a>
&mdash; World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) <a href="https://twitter.com/WorldAthletics/status/1230940359468965888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 21, 2020</a></blockquote>
 Even so, her 15.43m effort didn&rsquo;t look like a &lsquo;perfect&rsquo; jump, so the long-standing outdoor world record of 15.50m looked to be living on borrowed time. But then Covid-19 struck, the World Indoors were cancelled and Spain &ndash; where Rojas is based &ndash; went into lockdown, which also made it difficult for Rojas to train to her usual standard.
Nevertheless, Rojas returned to action for a couple of meetings in the second part of the outdoor season, winning at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Monaco and leaping a world-leading 14.71m in Castellon.
Apart from the indoor exploits of Rojas, 2020 was something of an off-year for triple jumping as just 22 women jumped beyond 14 metres, three of whom bettered 14.50m. By comparison, 2019 had 41 14-metre jumpers and 11 women beyond 14.50m.
Mirko Jalava (men&rsquo;s disciplines) and A Lennart Julin (women&rsquo;s disciplines) for World Athletics

A look back at the key moments of 2020 in the jumps

2020 review: jumps

KC Lightfoot has emerged from a varied sporting background to become one of the best pole vaulters in the USA. He competed at last year&rsquo;s World Championships in Doha and started 2020 in superb form, setting PBs of 5.83m indoors and 5.82m outdoors.
Here the 21-year-old explains how three different pursuits played a key part in his athletic development. 
<h3>Dirt biking</h3>
Growing up in Lee&rsquo;s Summit, Missouri, Lightfoot was introduced to the sport of dirt biking through his father, who himself was a former 4.95m vaulter.
&ldquo;I got my first four-wheeler when I was three years old,&rdquo; recalls Lightfoot. &ldquo;I loved riding; I rode them in the back yard every day and did so for no other reason than it was fun.&rdquo;
At about the age of six or seven, Lightfoot graduated to riding dirt bikes before moving into the competitive side of the sport.
Competing most weekends, the Baylor University student admits he was no superstar racer but he enjoyed the experience and believes several aspects of the racing have aided his vaulting.
&ldquo;I really enjoyed that sense of exhilaration from racing, and the fact you need to be a little bit crazy,&rdquo; he explains. &ldquo;I guess that is similar to vaulting, particularly that no sense of fear. When you are out there vaulting, you&rsquo;re out there on your own hoping everything works out. It was a similar situation on the dirt bikes. It was possible a lot could go wrong, but it was also a lot of fun.&rdquo;
Each race involved multiple jumps and Lightfoot says this helped develop his spatial awareness skills, a critical component of vaulting.
&ldquo;The bike can be pretty heavy and if you are going to come up short on a jump, you have to quickly be able to recognise that, move your body and quickly manoeuvre the bike around to lessen the pain on landing,&rdquo; he adds. &ldquo;Spatial awareness is also hugely important in the pole vault because we have to figure out all the moving parts to the jump and adjust accordingly in order to get our body over the bar.&rdquo;
At the age of 13, Lightfoot quit the sport of dirt biking to focus on baseball. 
<h3>Baseball</h3>
For much of his schoolyears, Lightfoot was a passionate and enthusiastic baseball player. He performed to a good standard on a travelling summer team, boasting a batting average of .400 and his versatility saw him play a number of positions including short shop, outfield and catcher.
It may not seem as though there are many transferable skills from baseball to pole vault, but Lightfoot says his reflexes were unquestionably sharpened on the baseball diamond and this has helped his vaulting. 
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 &ldquo;When batting, you need to make some quick decisions as you are swinging the bat,&rdquo; he explains. &ldquo;As the ball comes towards you, you have to act quickly. In a similar way when vaulting, you have to make quick decisions on the pole to make sure the jump works out.&rdquo;
Lightfoot, who now describes pole vault as his &ldquo;kryptonite&rdquo; for baseball, quit the sport at the age of 15 or 16 to focus on his rising athletics career. But even today he still enjoys baseball.
&ldquo;I like to play catch with my siblings or go to the batting cages and swing the bat,&rdquo; he adds. &ldquo;I would really like to play a game of baseball, and if someone invited me I would play.&rdquo; 
<h3>Cliff and bridge jumping</h3>
Another recreational pursuit the US vaulter enjoys is cliff and bridge jumping with friends.
He carries out the daring act at least a couple of times a year and has done so previously in the Ozarks, Arkansas and Utah.
&ldquo;I love to go out with friends and jump in the water and do some back flips, nothing too insane!&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The highest height I&rsquo;ve jumped off in a cliff in Arkansas at around 85ft.&rdquo;
Rather than learning specific skills for pole vaulting through cliff jumping, he reasons the recreational pursuit is &ldquo;more a reflection of my fearlessness and of wanting to embrace an adrenaline rush.&rdquo;
Steve Landells for World Athletics

How three different sports have helped KC Lightfoot become a top pole vaulter

The 21-year-old explains how three different pursuits played a key part in his athletic development

The heights continue to soar, yet the process stays the same. When Mondo Duplantis stands at the end of a pole vault runway, staring up at a bar that seems pitched in the sky, halfway to heaven, he boils a task of ultimate sophistication down to sheer simplicity.
&ldquo;I take a deep breath, think about what I&rsquo;m going to do,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;and then I go and do it.&rdquo;
Whether he&rsquo;s entering at a routine height of 5.50m, or looking up at a bar no one in history has cleared, it&rsquo;s the same routine &ndash; although the latter brings about a unique burden.
&ldquo;I know the magnitude of it in the situation, that it&rsquo;s got to be a pretty perfect jump to get over it,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;But I just sit there for a second, try to visualise what I have to do to get a clearance.&rdquo;
On Saturday, the 21-year-old was crowned Male Athlete of the Year after turning a ferociously difficult season into something utterly flawless: 16 competitions, 16 wins (17 if we count the Ultimate Garden Clash); two pole vault world records; and the highest outdoor vault in history.
His highlight?
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s got to be the first world record,&rdquo; he says, referring to the 6.17m he cleared in Torun in February to break Renaud Lavillenie&rsquo;s mark, which he broke again a week later, clearing 6.18m in Glasgow. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s changed so much for me.&rdquo; 
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 For a child prodigy who redefined the limits of his event as he rose through the ranks, many saw the world record as his destiny, as did Duplantis. But when it arrived, it felt a little surreal.
&ldquo;Everybody referring to me as the world record-holder is still pretty crazy,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I always wanted to be the world record-holder and I always thought I was capable of it. It&rsquo;s still a little hard to believe, but I&rsquo;m starting to cope with it and accept that&rsquo;s what it is.&rdquo;
Good thing, too, because if anyone seems capable of rewriting his mark in the years to come, it&rsquo;s Duplantis himself.
In many ways, 2020 brought his story full circle, wrapping the first chapter of his career up in a neat little bow. It was a year in which Duplantis had to revert back to his original training facility: a pole vault runway in the backyard of his family home in Lafayette, USA.
&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t have much of an option other than coming back to my parent&rsquo;s house and jumping in the backyard,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I found it cool, kind of sentimental. I hadn&rsquo;t jumped here since 2015.&rdquo;
His father Greg had been a world-class vaulter for the United States with a personal best of 5.80m, while his mother Helena &ndash; a native of Sweden &ndash; was a heptathlete and volleyball player. Duplantis chose early in his career to represent Sweden, a bigger decision than most have to make in their mid-teens as sporting stardom, by then, seemed more probable than possible.
Having learned to vault as a child using a broomstick in his living room, Mondo cleared age group world bests every year between the ages of seven and 12, all of which still stand. In 2015 he was just 16 when he cleared 5.30m to win the world U18 title in Cali, Colombia, and three years later Duplantis truly came of age, clearing a world U20 record of 6.05m to win the European title and beat his idol: Renaud Lavillenie. 
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 &ldquo;Just growing up, as a younger kid, I always looked up to Renaud and wanted to accomplish what he accomplished,&rdquo; he says.
During the height of the pandemic, they squared off again from afar, Lavillenie and Duplantis joining Sam Kendricks for the Ultimate Garden Clash. Duplantis and Lavillenie cleared five metres 36 times in a 30-minute period to share the win, the only time this year anyone has been on par with the Swede.
&ldquo;We had pretty much nothing else to do,&rdquo; admits Duplantis. &ldquo;We thought it&rsquo;d be a really fun thing, a cool thing for people to watch because there was pretty much no live sports at the time.&rdquo;
By the time of that event in May, both the Olympics and European Championships had been wiped off this year&rsquo;s calendar, and given his form it&rsquo;s only natural Duplantis would have loved for them to go ahead as planned.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a bummer it couldn&rsquo;t happen this year but I&rsquo;m not going to complain,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;A lot of worse things happened to other people.&rdquo;
Having already flown the nest from his family home, Duplantis found himself back there during the pandemic to continue his training, even if it wasn&rsquo;t quite at the same level.
&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t know what meets there were going to be so you don&rsquo;t know what you&rsquo;re aiming for, what your big goal is,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I took it as a relaxing period of an off-season. I spent time with my family.&rdquo;
But competition is what has always sustained him, the light at the end of the training tunnel.
&ldquo;I love competing so it&rsquo;s hard for me to just train,&rdquo; he admits. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not that I don&rsquo;t enjoy it, but it can get tough at times when the competitions are so far away.&rdquo; 
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 When events did resume, Duplantis was as dominant as ever, taking wins in Oslo, Gothenburg and Karlstad before soaring over 6.00m to win in Monaco. A 6.01m clearance soon followed in Stockholm, then 6.07m in Lausanne before Duplantis cleared 6.15m in Rome, the highest outdoor vault in history. His parents weren&rsquo;t there that night, but Duplantis received technical feedback from rivals Lavillenie and Ben Broeders.
&ldquo;I just had the good jump at the right time,&rdquo; he says of the 6.15m clearance, again making the extraordinary seem almost routine. If there&rsquo;s one thing that has defined his career so far, it&rsquo;s that.
Greg Duplantis &ndash; who together with wife Helena won this year&rsquo;s Coaching Achievement Award for their work with Mondo &ndash; once explained the difference between his son and other vaulters his age is that Mondo can use longer, stiffer poles designed for heavier vaulters. He told the New York Times that the catapult effect it created is like &ldquo;a pea on a plastic spoon that&rsquo;s shooting across a cafeteria&rdquo;.
In his teens Mondo was shorter than many of his peers, but an adolescent growth spurt has him now standing above the majority of them. His speed and strength have also improved &ndash; the last time he raced the 100m, in April 2018, he clocked an impressive 10.57 (2.1m/s).
As the heights have risen, so too has the danger and the inherent thrill that first drew him to the event. Does he consider himself a daredevil?
&ldquo;In a way, yeah, you have to have some bit of fearlessness to you,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;There are some who are a little bit crazier. Renaud is a lot more of a daredevil. I don&rsquo;t know if I&rsquo;m an adrenaline junkie but I definitely enjoy the thrill of jumping.&rdquo;
His achievements have fostered a visible confidence, but no trace of arrogance.
&ldquo;I just try to be myself,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Try to go out there and perform well. If the spotlight is there, I&rsquo;ll just try to be me.&rdquo;
He&rsquo;s aware that when he competes he represents not just himself, his family and his dual nationalities, but the event itself.
&ldquo;What Sam (Kendricks) and Renaud (Lavillenie) did in 2017 and 2018 was really good for pole vault, having some really good competitions and achieving some really great heights. That set the tone for pole vaulting, and on the women&rsquo;s side they were doing the same thing with Kat (Stefanidi) and Sandi (Morris). I just try to go out there, jump high, put on a show. I hope it comes off well and people think it&rsquo;s cool.&rdquo; 
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 To be crowned Male World Athlete of the Year, Duplantis had to defeat Joshua Cheptegei, Karsten Warholm, Ryan Crouser and Johannes Vetter &ndash; all of whom had seasons worthy of victory &ndash; and he was suitably delighted with the accolade.
&ldquo;I know what I can do when it comes to pole vaulting but when it comes to comparing yourself to the best shot putter or the best 10K runner, it&rsquo;s pretty cool to see your name among it,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;To come away with the win is quite an honour.&rdquo;
The last vaulter to win was Lavillenie in 2014 and, at 21, Duplantis is the youngest ever winner, throwing up the question not so much whether he can still improve, but by how much?
&ldquo;I think there are always ways to improve everything in your jump,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I can definitely get faster, I can get stronger, and mentally there are always ways to improve. It&rsquo;s a little game of centimetres I&rsquo;m playing now so as long as I can get centimetres better, that&rsquo;s an improvement.&rdquo;
A game no one is playing quite like him.
Cathal Dennehy for World Athletics

Still room for improvement for Duplantis, master of the vault

Athlete of the year and master of the vault, but still room for improvement for Duplantis

The heights continue to soar, yet the process stays the same. When Mondo Duplantis stands at the end of a pole vault runway, staring up at a bar that seems pitched in the sky, halfway to heaven, he boils a task of ultimate sophistication down to sheer simplicity.

The world records are not enough for Mondo Duplantis.
Fresh from recording the highest outdoor pole vault clearance in history at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rome last night, the 20-year-old mapped out his plan for total world domination over the coming years.
&ldquo;There are a lot of medals yet for me to win and there are a lot of things for me to do in the championship meets,&rdquo; he said.
&ldquo;If you want to be remembered as the best ever, you have to get it right when the moment is right and when you really need to. I like to think of myself as a big-time performer and I can get it done when it counts but you have to go out there and prove that.
&ldquo;So when it comes time for the Olympics, World Championships, even the next European Championships, I will go there and get it done and try to be on top of the podium, because you can jump as high as you want but if you can&rsquo;t do it when it counts&hellip;&rsquo;&rsquo; 
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Mondo Duplantis, winner of the pole vault at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rome</div>
&nbsp;
None of that plan will come as a surprise to his closest rival, two-time world champion Sam Kendricks, who did not compete in Rome but noted recently: &ldquo;We saw him coming&rdquo;.
At every age since his father began teaching him when he was still a toddler, Duplantis has been a pole vaulting phenomenon, in the vein of golfing great Tiger Woods.
He is not only undefeated since taking the silver medal behind Kendricks at the World Championships in Doha last October, he has barely been challenged. But he said this week that he never took winning for granted.
That it was always his first priority when he entered the arena.
He has one more competition to come this year &ndash; the final Diamond League meeting in Doha on September 25 &ndash; but he has already blazed across the athletics firmament this year.
In February, he set world records of 6.17m and 6.18m on the World Athletics Indoor Tour, the highest anyone had ever jumped in any venue, indoors or outdoors.
But he was not content with that because he still didn&rsquo;t have the highest outdoor jump. That remained the domain of Sergey Bubka, whose 6.14m monument from 1994 had stood unattainable for 26 years. 
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Mondo Duplantis celebrates his 6.15m vault at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rome</div>
&nbsp;
But Duplantis has made his intentions for that clear from the opening Diamond League meeting in Monaco little more than a month ago in this shortened outdoor season. He has attacked the benchmark relentlessly over the last month, taking 13 attempts at 6.15m across five different competitions before he arrived in Rome this week.
None of those were closer than his first attempt at the Stadio Olimpico last night, when he was over the bar but dislodged it with his chest as he began his descent.
However that gave him confidence that this would be his night.
In the absence of his parents Greg and Helena, who have coached him since he was a small child, he turned to his big brother on the circuit, former world record-holder Renaud Lavillenie as his &lsquo;replacement coach&rsquo;.
Duplantis asked if he should move his run-up in slightly to get more penetration on his vault, but Lavillenie, a supreme technician, advised that he just needed to put a little more force into the pole at the moment he planted it.
On his 15th attempt at the historic height, he got everything right and soared over the bar before celebrating in the freefall back to the earth. 
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 &ldquo;I hit the mat but I haven&rsquo;t really fallen back to earth,&rdquo; a delighted Duplantis said afterwards.
&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m still up in the clouds right now. It&rsquo;s just one of those feelings where you are kind of dreaming a little bit&hellip; It&rsquo;s surreal, it&rsquo;s surreal, it&rsquo;s a super-crazy feeling when everything lines up like that and you do a really good performance.&rdquo;
His only regret was that neither of his parents were there to see it live.
&ldquo;Usually one of them is with me (so) I am a bit disappointed about that,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;My dad has never been with me when I jumped a world record.&rdquo;
Given his son&rsquo;s youth and extraordinary ability, Greg Duplantis is likely to have plenty more opportunities.
It&rsquo;s a shame that so few people witnessed this performance live, after the local authorities ruled that the meeting organisers could not admit spectators to the cavernous Stadio Olimpico. But that is the new normal in this pandemic year and it didn&rsquo;t impede Duplantis at all.
Nicole Jeffery for World Athletics

The world records are not enough for Mondo Duplantis.

Still ‘up in the clouds’, Duplantis turns his attention to next major targets

In the country where &lsquo;Mondo&rsquo; means &lsquo;world&rsquo;, Swedish wunderkind Armand &lsquo;Mondo&rsquo; Duplantis confirmed his status as the world&rsquo;s greatest pole vaulter, jumping higher than anyone ever has in an outdoor stadium, 6.15m, at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rome on Thursday (17).
In February this year, Duplantis set world records of 6.17m and 6.18m on the World Indoor Tour. The latter remains the official world record* across both indoor and outdoor venues.
But no one had ever jumped higher than 6.14m in an outdoor stadium. Sergey Bubka&rsquo;s 6.14m monument from 1994 had stood inviolate for 26 years, but it has been under siege from Duplantis this season.
Such has been his form this year that he has made vaulting over six metres look like rolling out of bed. And he&rsquo;s only 20.
Before last night, he had taken 13 attempts at 6.15m after cutting a swathe through the world&rsquo;s best pole vaulters in this short, sharp competition season.
As has become his habit, he despatched the competition early, confirming victory with a second-attempt clearance of 5.85m.
He glided over 6.00m, then raised the bar to the ultimate target of 6.15m.
He appeared to have mastered the historic height at the first try, but just grazed the bar with his chest on the way down.
However, he adjusted his technique fractionally on his next attempt and the 15th was the charm. He sailed over the bar, celebrating already as he fell back to earth. It was enough to make you believe that a man can fly. 
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 &ldquo;I hit the mat but I haven&rsquo;t really fallen back to earth,&rdquo; a delighted Duplantis said later.
&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m still up in the clouds right now. It&rsquo;s just one of those feelings where you are kind of dreaming a little bit&hellip; It&rsquo;s surreal, it&rsquo;s surreal, it&rsquo;s a super-crazy feeling when everything lines up like that and you do a really good performance.&rdquo;
Duplantis said he wanted to prove that he was the best vaulter in history both indoors and out.
&ldquo;I just wanted to be on top of the leaderboard,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The 6.15m was really important to me, so I&rsquo;m happy to get over that.&rdquo;
&ldquo;There was kind of this confusion between the indoor and outdoor record &ndash; it&rsquo;s kind of merged. I already had the world record but I wanted to clear everything up and be the best outdoor.&rdquo;
He revealed that he took advice from former world record-holder Renaud Lavillenie on the history-making jump.
&ldquo;I asked Renaud if I should move in a little bit because I hit it on the way down (on the first attempt) so the typical thing to do would be to move in a little bit, but he thought I just didn&rsquo;t take off as well as I could so he said just to hit it with a little more force at the start of the jump.
&ldquo;Renaud was kind of the replacement coach today and it worked out. After that first attempt I knew what I had to do to do it, I just had to go out there and get it done.&rdquo;
Lavillenie was eliminated earlier after failing at 5.80m, leaving three men to fight out the podium places. Belgium&rsquo;s Ben Broeders posted a national record of 5.80m to take second on a countback from Ernest Obiena of the Philippines.
<h3>Kiplimo wins 3000m thriller</h3>
In the teen showdown of the night, Jacob (Kiplimo) triumphed from Jakob (Ingebrigtsen) in the 3000m as the first three men set national records, carving chunks off their personal best times over what is a less frequently contested distance these days.
A confident Ingebrigtsen took the lead just before the bell from Stewart McSweyn but fellow 19-year-old Kiplimo waited until the finishing straight to make his move. As it was over 5000m at the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Ostrava last week, Kiplimo&rsquo;s final kick proved irresistible over the final 50m. 
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<div style="background-image: url('https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/Small/69c4014d-8c03-4677-b2a4-891a9c9eb3f9.jpg');">&nbsp;</div>
Jacob Kiplimo on his way to winning the 3000m at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rome</div>
&nbsp;
He crossed the finish line in 7:26.64, the fastest time in the world since 2007, and a Diamond League record. Ingebrigtsen set a Norwegian record of 7:27.05 in second and McSweyn held on gamely for an Australian and Oceania record of 7:28.02.
Kiplimo is now the fastest teenager in history at this distance. Both he and Ingebrigtsen bettered marathon world record-holder Eliud Kipchoge's benchmark of 7:27.72.
It was another youngster who triumphed in the women&rsquo;s 800m as Scotswoman Jemma Reekie kept her perfect record for the season in 1:59.77.
Norwegian world 400m hurdles champion Karsten Warholm extended his spectacular season with another commanding victory in the third fastest time of his career, 47.08.
That is his fourth entry into the all-time top 13 times in a month, and he now holds six of those times, but for now the 28-year-old world record of 46.78 remains elusive.
His consolation is that it was the fastest time ever on Italian soil, and he also now holds the Golden Gala&rsquo;s meet record (previously Abderrahman Samba&rsquo;s 47.48) and the Stadio Olimpico record (formerly Edwin Moses&rsquo; 47.37).
He said he was very satisfied with his accomplishments this year.
&ldquo;I ran really low 47s on a regular basis this year &ndash; I am very happy,&rdquo; Warholm said.
&ldquo;This season has been a good experience for me. It is good fun for me coming here to Rome with the warm weather and no winds &ndash; unlike back home in Norway where it is cold now and rainy. The world record? I am quite used to talking about it and I love it because it shows that I am in the right pace, that I am close.&rdquo;
Rising star Femke Bol of the Netherlands also extended her undefeated season over the 400m hurdles in 53.90, just a touch outside her world lead of 53.79, while her training partner Lieke Klaver became just the third woman to dip under 51 seconds for 400m this year, winning in a personal best of 50.98.
Adding to the Dutch delight, this season&rsquo;s pacesetter Nadine Visser claimed the 100m hurdles in 12.72. Italy-based Briton Andrew Pozzi took the men&rsquo;s 110m event in 13.15.
<h3>Thompson-Herah speeds to world lead</h3>
Jamaica&rsquo;s Olympic 100m and 200m champion Elaine Thompson-Herah returned to international competition in sizzling form, setting the fastest time of the year in the short sprint, with 10.85. That took her just above her compatriot, rival and fellow Olympic gold medallist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who has a best of 10.86 this year
Thompson-Herah is delighted to have found her best form again after three years dogged by injury. She finished almost three metres clear of runner-up Aleia Hobbs (11.12) and Marie-Josee Ta Lou (11.14). 
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Elaine Thompson wins the 100m at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rome</div>
&nbsp;
South Africa&rsquo;s Akani Simbine was similarly dominant in the men&rsquo;s 100m in 9.96.
In the field, 2017 world silver medallist Yuliya Levchenko took the Ukrainian bragging rights from her teenaged compatriot Yaroslava Mahuchikh in the high jump, courtesy of a clean sheet to 1.98m, but could go no higher.
Mahuchikh, who shares this year&rsquo;s world leading mark of 2.00m with Levchenko, struggled to find her rhythm and was eliminated after clearing 1.95m on her first attempt. She took second place from Australia&rsquo;s Nicola McDermott (1.95m) on a countback.
The Ukrainian dominance continued in the men&rsquo;s event as Andriy Protsenko triumphed with a best leap of 2.30m, denying hometown favourite Gianmarco Tamberi (2.24m).
In the only throwing event on the programme, USA&rsquo;s Nick Ponzio took the win in the shot put with a best of 21.09m.
Nicole Jeffery for World Athletics
*Note: In 1998, the IAAF decided to accept indoor world records as the official world records if they were better than the best outdoor mark.

In the country where ‘Mondo’ means ‘world’, Swedish wunderkind Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis confirmed his status as the world’s greatest pole vaulter, jumping higher than anyone ever has in an outdoor stadium, 6.15m, at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rome on Thursday (17).

Duplantis scales 6.15m in Rome, world's highest ever outdoor vault

Pole vault six-metre club members Armand Duplantis, Sam Kendricks, Piotr Lisek and Renaud Lavillenie will return to battle at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Doha on 25 September.
Duplantis, the world record holder at 6.18m, has been unstoppable this year, unbeaten thus far in 13 competitions in 2020. In the fading light of Lausanne eight days ago, the 20-year-old topped 6.07m, best outdoor vault in the world for 26 years. It took that vault to beat Kendricks, the two-time world champion, who topped 6.02m, the second highest clearance of his career.
&ldquo;After Lausanne I was desperate to get back out and compete, I felt like I was in the zone and it&rsquo;s hard to take a step back in those situations, but I had to play safe," Duplantis said.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m excited to compete in Doha and to continue this season. After a delayed start we&rsquo;re all getting into good shape so this should be a great competition. I love pole vault &ndash; we all do &ndash; and when we compete against each other we really push each other on, it brings out the best of us.&rdquo;
Lisek, the 2019 world silver medallist, has a 5.90m season's best to his credit and has won his lat two meetings at the Skolimowska Memorial in Silesia, where he beat Kendricks, and again in Dessau two days ago, topping 5.82m and 5.80m, respectively.
Lavillenie, the most experienced of the quartet and former world record holder, is working his way back to fitness after suffering a hand injury in the summer. He finished second at the Golden Spike World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting in Ostrava on Tuesday, topping 5.74m.
Doha&rsquo;s Qatar Sports Club will host a revised 12-event programme - the fourth and final competitive meeting of the truncated 2020 Wanda Diamond League season - which includes sprint hurdles and 800m for both men and women; 100m, 3000m and long jump for women; and 200m, 400m, 1500m and pole vault for men.
Due to the impact of Covid-19, the 2020 Wanda Diamond League will not form a structured series of events leading to a final and athletes will not earn Diamond League points this season.
Organisers for World Athletics

Pole vault six-metre club members Armand Duplantis, Sam Kendricks, Piotr Lisek and Renaud Lavillenie will return to battle at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Doha on 25 September.

Duplantis, Kendricks, Lisek and Lavillenie set for Doha clash

Another week, another world record was seriously threatened.
With the likes of Karsten Warholm, Mondo Duplantis and Ryan Crouser having crept closer to the top of the world all-time lists in their respective events over the past few weeks, at yesterday&rsquo;s World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting in Silesia, it was Johannes Vetter&rsquo;s turn to take a crack at breaking a world record.
The German javelin thrower hadn&rsquo;t necessarily targeted Jan Zelezny&rsquo;s long-standing mark of 98.48m, set back in 1996, but Vetter has been in terrific form all season. The 2017 world champion had thrown beyond 90 metres at the Continental Tour meetings in Turku (91.49m) and Chorzow (90.86m) and headed to Poland last weekend with a string of six victories.
His two opening throws at the Skolimowska Memorial &ndash; 83.77m and 86.41m &ndash; hadn&rsquo;t really hinted that a bigger throw was in the offing, but then he unleashed his monster effort in the third round.
As is his trademark, and such is the force with which he throws, Vetter fell to the ground upon release of his javelin. But there was also a glint in his eye; the look of an athlete who realises that they may have done something special.
Still roaring, Vetter stood up quickly and watched as his javelin sailed out across the Silesian Stadium, seemingly defying gravity. After what felt like an age &ndash; in javelin-throwing terms, at least &ndash; the implement finally landed at the other end of the infield, way beyond the 90-metre line and almost within the shot put sector at the opposite end of the green.
Moments later, the measurement appeared: 97.76m. The second-best throw in history and just 72 centimetres &ndash; about a quarter the length of an average javelin &ndash; shy of Zelezny&rsquo;s world record. 
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 Vetter, tearful and jubilant, managed to regain his composure and followed it with a 94.84m effort &ndash; the second-best throw of his career &ndash; and rounded out his series with efforts of 89.95m and 87.28m.
&ldquo;In javelin throwing, small things matter, especially with the technique,&rdquo; he said afterwards. &ldquo;Small changes can make big differences. My grandfather was born here in 1941, so it's a bit like coming home for me.
&ldquo;I don't really remember the throw,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;You've got so much adrenaline in your body, I only remember celebrating afterwards.&rdquo;
After then watching back a clip of the throw, Vetter offered further insights. &ldquo;It was really close to perfection,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It was a good throw, yes, but it still wasn't a world record, so I have to wait a bit more. In an open field with a good backwind, I think that throw would have been 100 metres, but I'm really happy.&rdquo; 
<img src="https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/LargeL/413ebc4d-584c-488b-94d2-7d3da26164bd.jpg?cachebuster=3eaa2594-a904-4a1d-ba9e-13bb460ea949" alt="Johannes Vetter" width="600" height="400" />
 News of Vetter&rsquo;s throw didn&rsquo;t take long to reach Zelezny.
&ldquo;I got a message first, I didn't watch it live,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And when I heard the result, I thought 'Okay, it is still there&rsquo;.
&ldquo;It was always clear that the record will go away some day. It&rsquo;s already been 24 years so maybe the time has come. Johannes belongs to the group of athletes who I always thought could break it. He&rsquo;s fast, he&rsquo;s strong, he&rsquo;s powerful.&rdquo;
It&rsquo;s worth noting that the track in Jena where Zelezny set the world record is a far more open facility that would have benefitted more from strong winds. That&rsquo;s also true of most of the other big throws at the top of the world all-time list. Vetter&rsquo;s effort in Silesia is the best ever throw achieved inside a full-sized stadium by quite some margin. The next best is Zelezny&rsquo;s 92.80m from the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton.
&ldquo;Ten days ago I threw over 90 metres twice in a competition in a stadium,&rdquo; said the 27-year-old. &ldquo;Today I did that again. I'm really close to the world record. I'm still quite young and have some more years to go. I hope that one day I will break it.&rdquo; 
<img src="https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/SpikesLb1/e593a0dc-8fbd-447c-be76-f8e56f193d2c.png?cachebuster=fcd3b6a2-1e2b-49bc-a039-7e041208d39b" alt="Crouser, Duplantis, Vetter and Warholm" width="600" height="263" />
 Although 2020 has been far from a normal season, several athletes have been in record-breaking shape.
At last month's Wanda Diamond League meeting in Monaco, Uganda's Joshua Cheptegei broke Kenenisa Bekele's long-standing world record for 5000m, running 12:35.36. Just last week at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Brussels, Sifan Hassan and Mo Farah set world one-hour records on the track. The next morning in Prague, Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya broke the women-only world record for the half marathon, clocking 1:05:34.
With Warholm, Duplantis and Crouser all in peak form, the race is now on to become the next athlete to break a world record.
Warholm has had a short but impressive outdoor campaign. After clocking a world best over 300m hurdles in Oslo, he went on to win the 400m hurdles in Monaco in 47.10 and then <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/diamond-league/news/warholm-4687-stockholm-diamond-league" target="_blank" rel="noopener">went even faster in Stockholm, running 46.87</a> &ndash; the second-fastest time in history &ndash; despite clattering the final barrier. For good measure, he went on to win the 400m flat later that afternoon in 45.05.
Warholm will race at tomorrow&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-continental-tour/news/how-follow-2020-continental-tour-gold" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Continental Tour Gold meeting in Ostrava</a>, where he will once again target Kevin Young&rsquo;s 46.78 world record from the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona.
Duplantis broke the world pole vault record twice during the indoor season earlier this year and then carried that momentum through to the outdoor season. Undefeated in all 13 of his competitions in 2020, <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/diamond-league/news/duplantis-lausanne-pole-vault-607-kendricks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the young Swede scaled 6.07m with room to spare in Lausanne</a> before having an attempt at 6.15m &ndash; what would have been the best ever outdoor vault in history &ndash; but the lack of light made vaulting too difficult and so he called it a night.
The 20-year-old&rsquo;s next competition will be at the Continental Tour Silver meeting in Berlin on Sunday (13) when he will be up against the two men with whom he shared a podium at last year&rsquo;s World Championships: gold medallist Sam Kendricks and bronze medallist Piotr Lisek. After that, he intends on competing at the Wanda Diamond League meetings in Rome and Doha.
Crouser &ndash; like Vetter, Warholm and Duplantis &ndash; is also undefeated this year. The Olympic shot put champion <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/news/report/bol-400-hurdles-record-japan-u20-records-stee" target="_blank" rel="noopener">set a PB of 22.91m in July</a> to move to equal third on the world all-time list. He followed it with 22.56m and 22.72m victories in Des Moines in late August and last weekend won in Silesia with a Polish all-comers&rsquo; record of 22.70m.
Already the most prolific 22-metre thrower in history, the 27-year-old will next compete at the <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-continental-tour/news/how-follow-2020-continental-tour-gold" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Continental Tour Gold meetings in Ostrava</a> on Tuesday and Zagreb next week. The meeting records of 22.27m (Ostrava) and 22.28m (Zagreb) seem to be a realistic target, while the world record of 23.12m looks to be living on borrowed time.
Vetter, meanwhile, will be in action on Tuesday (8) at the Continental Tour Bronze meeting in Dessau, a more open venue that has previously played host to several 90-metre performances, and then at the ISTAF meeting in Berlin on Sunday. The <a href="https://www.mdr.de/video/livestreams/mdr-plus/eventlivestreamzweiww-2202.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MDR website will have a live stream of Dessau</a>.
Keen to stress the nuances of the event, Vetter himself said in Silesia: &ldquo;Last week I threw 84 metres, this week I threw 97. Those little things make a big difference.&rdquo; But provided he finds the right elements to tweak before Tuesday&rsquo;s competition, he could once again challenge the world record.
The race is on.
Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics

Another week, another world record was seriously threatened.

Vetter joins Warholm, Duplantis and Crouser in race to break the next world record

Britain's Mo Farah and Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands set respective men&rsquo;s and women&rsquo;s world one-hour records* at the Wanda Diamond League exhibition meeting at the King Baudouin Stadium tonight.
Britain&rsquo;s multiple world and Olympic champion held off the challenge of his training partner, home athlete Bashir Abdi, to set a new mark of 21,330m &ndash; eclipsing the 2007 mark of 21,285m set by Haile Gebrselassie. Abdi finished eight metres behind.
Hassan&rsquo;s record also came after a titanic battle with Kenya&rsquo;s world marathon record-holder Brigid Kosgei, although it later transpired the latter had been disqualified for stepping on to the infield in the closing stages.
The Dutch world 1500m and 10,000m champion reached 18,930 metres as the hour elapsed, beating the existing mark of 18,517 metres set by Ethiopia&rsquo;s Dire Tune in 2008.
Moving into the final quarter of an hour, Tune&rsquo;s mark seemed certain to be bettered, given that both women were more than a minute ahead of world record pace. The only question remained &ndash; which champion would secure it?
As they shadowed each other, swapping the lead but never getting away from each other, it was impossible to predict who would triumph. Hassan said afterwards that she thought Kosgei would &ldquo;run away from her&rdquo;.
But when the gun went to mark the final minute with the pair halfway down the back straight, Hassan moved ahead once more, and this time it was decisive.
Looking once behind her, the Dutch athlete took off, pumping her arms, going for broke. Kosgei, baring her teeth, did everything in her power to stay in touch, but there was no catching up, and when the 60 minutes elapsed, Hassan slowed to a halt halfway down the back straight after a crazy sprint finish.
"I didn't feel good before the start of the race, I even puked," revealed Hassan. "After 30 minutes of racing, I finally felt better. It was in the final 20 minutes that I gained the confidence I needed. When there were only two minutes left on the clock, the fun began. I just gave everything I had left. I am so happy with the win and the world record. It wasn't easy."
As the men&rsquo;s race moved into the final quarter of an hour, the ghostly figure of the current world record holder, Gebrselassie, was shown in virtual shape, running at their side. They were bang on the pace.
With 10 minutes to go, they moved ahead of the world record schedule. They passed 18,000 metres in 50:43. 
<img src="https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/LargeL/c76d4902-139f-45fe-b5e6-8988c9dc3093.jpg?cachebuster=5e6443fd-6e89-4e97-a8a9-d51ac06db4af" alt="" width="600" height="400" />
 Inside the final five minutes, the home runner, who the day before had confessed that he expected Farah to beat him, moved to the lead, but the multiple champion was shadowing him still.
As advertised, the Wavelight visual pace-guidance system employing differently coloured LED lights installed on the inside edge of the track made the pursuit of records on the night immediately intelligible.
With three minutes remaining, both men were 30 metres clear of the leading blue lights, showing the intended pace, and the green lights snaking behind them, showing the actual world record pace.
A second world record appeared in the offing &ndash; and the same question was being asked. Who would break it?
The gun went to mark one minute to go, then Farah made a significant break. He charged around the bend as the final seconds ticked away, and at the same spot where Hassan had earlier triumphed, Farah did too, taking a few seconds to realise it was all over.
&ldquo;The world record is yours, Mo!&rdquo; said the stadium MC.
Abdi had the consolation of lowering the world best for 20,000m from 56:26 to 56:20.2*, having led his friend through that mark.
"I was very excited to be back on the track," said Farah. "I knew I was in a great shape after the hard work I did in the last six weeks. At a certain point, with just 10 laps to go, it became tough so I was happy that Bashir took the lead, but I felt great with just one minute to go. A fast last lap is still my best tactic."
Kenya&rsquo;s Olympic 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon had to settle for another near miss as she attempted to beat the world 1000m record of 2:28.98 set on this track in 1996 by Russia&rsquo;s double Olympic champion Svetlana Masterkova.
Having finished just 17 hundredths of a second short at last month&rsquo;s opening Diamond League meeting in Monaco, Kipyegon seemed on track to achieve her ambition with 200 metres remaining, but faltered slightly over the final few metres to cross the line in 2:29.92. 
<img src="https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/LargeL/c1237478-ed35-4da2-939b-d1bffb2f0c74.jpg?cachebuster=f6decfe4-7f84-4ee4-8817-8d3d226d9585" alt="Jakob Ingebrigtsen" width="600" height="400" />
 Norway&rsquo;s 19-year-old European 1500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who has already reduced the European record to 3:28.68, made a bold effort to improve on that but his honourable solo effort saw him finish in 3:30.69, with Jesus Gomez of Spain a distant second in 3:34.64.
In the pole vault, Sweden&rsquo;s 20-year-old world record-holder Mondo Duplantis saw the last challenger, home vaulter Ben Broeders, fall away with a best of 5.70m.
The European champion then went on to clear a meeting record of 6.00m at his first attempt before having another crack at 6.15m, a centimetre higher than the best outdoor clearance ever made, by Sergey Bubka in 1994. He didn&rsquo;t make it. But surely his time will come sooner rather than later. 
<img src="https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/LargeL/e32c1f43-58d1-484b-b7a1-029d373d33e1.jpg?cachebuster=946534f7-ebcd-4929-991a-ef20e0861cd6" alt="Mondo Duplantis" width="600" height="400" />
 Twenty-year-old Rani Rosius, who had won the Belgian title in 11.39, needed 11.43 to earn another prestige victory in the women&rsquo;s 100m, with France&rsquo;s Carolle Zahl second in 11.56.
Britain&rsquo;s world heptathlon champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson had said the day before that this meeting &ndash; where she was competing in the 100m hurdles and the high jump &ndash; was effectively the highlight of her season, and she had a reasonably satisfactory result in the first of them, which was won by home champion Anne Zagre in 13.21.
Despite an uncertain start, Johnson-Thompson drew on her strength to take fourth place in 13.57 &ndash; inside her previous season&rsquo;s best of 13.73.
Zagre was chased home by Denmark&rsquo;s Mette Graversgaard, who clocked 13.26, and Belgian compatriot Sarah Missinne, who ran a season&rsquo;s best of 13.55. 
<img src="https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/LargeL/a5a29a63-35b4-4260-9dcf-ca2eec5181ff.jpg?cachebuster=d9fbea47-a24c-4b93-8154-438ffff83ddc" alt="Nicola McDermott" width="600" height="400" />
 Johnson-Thompson went on to equal her season&rsquo;s best of 1.84m in a high jump won by Australia&rsquo;s Nicola McDermott with 1.91m.
Poland&rsquo;s Iga Baumgart-Witan won the women&rsquo;s 400m in 52.13, while the men&rsquo;s 200m went to Italy&rsquo;s Eseosa Desalu in 20.39.
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics
 *Pending to the usual ratification process

Britain's Mo Farah and Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands set respective men’s and women’s world one-hour records at the Wanda Diamond League exhibition meeting at the King Baudouin Stadium tonight.

Hassan and Farah break one-hour world records in Brussels

Organisers of the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea have announced that pole vault world record-holder Mondo Duplantis and double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah will compete at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rome on 17 September.
European 1500m champion Laura Muir, 2016 world indoor high jump champion Gianmarco Tamberi and Italian shot putter Leonardo Fabbri will also be in action in the Italian capital.
Duplantis stunned athletics fans during the indoor season, setting world records of 6.17m and 6.18m in Torun and Glasgow respectively. He has maintained his winning streak throughout the outdoor season, including victories in Oslo, Monaco, Stockholm and Lausanne &ndash; the latter with a world-leading height of 6.07m.
After his winning clearance in Lausanne &ndash; the highest outdoor vault since 1994 &ndash; Duplantis went on to attempt 6.15m, what would have been the best ever outdoor clearance in history, but the lack of light made vaulting too difficult, so he wound up his competition after just one attempt at that bar.
Given the ease with which Duplantis cleared the big heights in Lausanne, Rodion Gataullin&rsquo;s stadium record of 6.00m and Sergey Bubka&rsquo;s meeting record of 5.94m both appear to be living on borrowed time.
Thompson-Herah will be seeking a third 100m victory in Rome, following her triumphs in 2016 (10.87) and 2019 (10.89). So far this year the Jamaican sprinter has competed exclusively in Kingston, boasting season&rsquo;s bests of 10.88 and 22.19.
Like Thompson-Herah, Muir has competed in Rome twice before, both times over 1500m, but the British middle-distance runner will be making her first appearance over 800m in the Olympic Stadium. She currently leads the 1500m world list with 3:57.86, while her best 800m run of the year is 1:59.54.
A handful of leading Italian athletes have also been confirmed for the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea. 2016 world indoor champion Gianmarco Tamberi will compete in the high jump, national indoor record-holder Leonardo Fabbri will contest the shot put, while sprinters Filippo Tortu and Lamont Marcell Jacobs will clash over 100m.
This year&rsquo;s Golden Gala Pietro Mennea will be held in Rome&rsquo;s Olympic Stadium, as originally planned. A few months ago, organisers announced that the neighbouring Stadio dei Marmi &ndash; usually used as the warm-up track for the meeting &ndash; would host the Golden Gala, but the event has since been able to move back to its usual home.

Organisers of the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea have announced that pole vault world record-holder Mondo Duplantis and double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah will compete at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rome on 17 September.

Duplantis and Thompson-Herah among first big names confirmed for Rome

At one point during Athletissima&rsquo;s exhibition city centre pole vault competition, it seemed as though the duel between Mondo Duplantis and Sam Kendricks would never end. Both men simply went higher and higher, clearing each height with ease on their first attempts at the Wanda Diamond League meeting at Lausanne&rsquo;s Place de l&rsquo;Europe on Wednesday (2).
Eventually, though, the only obstacle standing in their way appeared to be the lack of light. The sun set on the Swiss city at about the time the bar moved up past six metres. And although Duplantis ultimately prevailed with a first-time clearance at 6.07m, having seen Kendricks bow out with a best of 6.02m, once the young Swede took an attempt at 6.15m, he knew it would be futile to continue.
After all, the 20-year-old &ndash; who cleared a world record of 6.18m earlier this year &ndash; has plenty of time in which to go higher.
Tonight&rsquo;s competition was less about records and more about a fascinating duel between the world&rsquo;s two best vaulters of their generation. 
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The exhibition city centre pole vault competition at Lausanne&rsquo;s Place de l&rsquo;Europe</div>
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Kendricks, the two-time world champion, opened at the lower height of 5.32m, while Duplantis entered at 5.62m &ndash; a height at which Kendricks registered a failure before clearing successfully. Duplantis passed the next two bars, but Kendricks started to churn out first-attempt clearances, one after the other.
Thiago Braz and Renaud Lavillenie, the 2016 and 2012 Olympic champions respectively, both got over 5.72m but exited the competition with three misses at 5.82m, leaving Duplantis and Kendricks as the sole competitors.
And so began their game of &lsquo;anything you can do&hellip;&rsquo; Just moments after Kendricks sailed over 5.87m on his first try, Duplantis did likewise, albeit with a seemingly larger margin. The same happened at 5.92m and 5.97m.
The bar then moved to 6.02m &ndash; a Swiss all-comers&rsquo; record &ndash; and, astonishingly, both men once again got over it with their first vault. Kendricks nudged the bar slightly but it stayed on, while Duplantis cleared it with room to spare. It&rsquo;s the first time in history that two men have cleared 6.02m in the same competition.
Following seven successive first-attempt clearances, Kendricks recorded just his second foul of the competition with the bar at 6.07m. Duplantis, however, was successful once more, breaking the Diamond League record and his own outdoor Swedish record in the process. 
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Mondo Duplantis in action at the Diamond League meeting in Lausanne</div>
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With darkness setting in, Kendricks registered two more misses to finally bow out of the contest. The bar was then raised to 6.15m while the competition organisers tried to find some makeshift method of getting more light on to the runway. They managed to light the end of the runway and Duplantis took one try but aborted it soon after planting his pole, his first failure of the evening.
Realising that tonight wasn&rsquo;t a night for world records, he stood up from the landing bed and bowed to the crowd. 
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 &ldquo;In the end it got too dark to go for 6.15m and I felt it was unsafe to continue any further,&rdquo; said the world silver medallist. &ldquo;I felt I was in the zone. But you have to be prudent.
&ldquo;It was a fantastic evening. The conditions, crowd, competition &ndash; it was all fabulous. Sam is a fabulous competitor, and I feel we bring the best out of each other. We kept pushing each other and you can see the result. It reminded me a bit of the Ultimate Garden Clash, we kept going after the next height. It was quick. I loved it.
&ldquo;You can see a lot of us are getting back to our best shape,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;Renaud was good, Thiago is getting back there. We could be looking at some great pole vaulting in what is left of this season.&rdquo;
<h3>Double success for Sweden</h3>
The women&rsquo;s event was similarly competitive and boiled down to a four-way contest, but Angelica Bengtsson&rsquo;s last-gasp 4.72m clearance gave the Swede the victory.
She sailed over 4.34m, 4.44m and 4.54m on her first attempts. Britain&rsquo;s Holly Bradshaw opened her series at the latter height, also clearing it on her first try, while France&rsquo;s Marion Lotout, Switzerland&rsquo;s Angelica Moser and Sweden&rsquo;s Michaela Meijer also went clear.
Bradshaw then got over 4.64m on her first attempt, as did Moser, setting a lifetime best in the process. Swedish duo Bengtsson and Meijer both got over it on their second tries, while Lotout exited the competition.
The bar moved up to 4.72m and after two rounds of failed attempts it appeared as though no one would be successful. Moser departed the competition with three misses, but was content with her evening&rsquo;s work. Bengtsson, however, was successful on her third try, setting a season&rsquo;s best in the process.
Having had the lead snatched away from her, Bradshaw was unable to gain it and missed for a third and final time at 4.72m, as did Meijer.
Bengtsson ended her evening with three attempts at a would-be Swedish record of 4.84m, but was unsuccessful.
&ldquo;This has been a beautiful experience, the energy from the fans has been amazing and the city is a great backdrop,&rdquo; said Bengtsson. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy to be able to come out and put on a show for the fans and hopefully help to lift their spirit as it&rsquo;s been a tough year for everyone. For us as athletes it&rsquo;s been tough as well. Personally it has been hard to find the motivation to train after the postponement of the Olympic Games because we focus on that for four years, but I have been able to tell myself summer 2021 will come soon.&rdquo;
Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics

At one point during Athletissima’s exhibition city centre pole vault competition, it seemed as though the duel between Mondo Duplantis and Sam Kendricks would never end. Both men simply went higher and higher, clearing each height with ease on their first attempts at the Wanda Diamond League meeting at Lausanne’s Place de l’Europe on Wednesday (2).

Duplantis clears 6.07m in Lausanne, best outdoor vault in the world for 26 years

The King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels will be empty of spectators for Friday night&rsquo;s Wanda Diamond League exhibition meeting but brimming with ambition as the 44th edition of the AG Memorial Van Damme will see three world records being targeted.
Kenya&rsquo;s Olympic 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon will challenge the women&rsquo;s 1000m mark while the men&rsquo;s and women&rsquo;s one-hour records will be under threat from, in the first instance, Britain&rsquo;s multiple world and Olympic champion Mo Farah, and in the second, world 1500m and 10,000m champion Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands and Kenya&rsquo;s world marathon record-holder Brigid Kosgei.
Kipyegon will be attempting to better the mark of 2:28.98 set by Russia&rsquo;s double Olympic champion Svetlana Masterkova on the same track in 1996. And the Kenyan will approach her task with plenty of confidence given her performance in the opening Diamond League meeting of the season in Monaco last month, where she finished just 17 hundredths of a second adrift of the Russian&rsquo;s time.
Now 37, Farah &ndash; winner of the 5000m and 10,000m at the last two Olympics &ndash; is returning to the track for the first time since switching to road racing in 2017 and has prepared for his effort at the high altitude of Font Romeu in the Pyrenees.
He has been accompanied by training partner Bashir Abdi, who won European 10,000m silver for Belgium at the 2018 European Championships and who, like Farah, was born in Mogadishu, capital of Somalia. 
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Mo Farah wins the 5000m at the IAAF Diamond League final in Zurich</div>
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The mark they are targeting was the last world record set by Ethiopia&rsquo;s multiple world and Olympic champion Haile Gebrselassie, who managed to cover 21,285 metres in 2007 on the track in Ostrava.
Asked what he believed he could do in Brussels, Farah &ndash; who will act as a pacemaker at the London Marathon on October 4 &ndash; responded: &ldquo;What distance do I have in mind? I don't have to say what I think I can do, it doesn't matter. I just have to do it on September 4th.
&ldquo;I can only say that I look forward to it very hard and believe in it. I want to improve that world record.
&ldquo;The AG Memorial Van Damme will be my first race since the Chicago Marathon last October. I was struggling with an injury and then all races were cancelled due to the corona pandemic.
&ldquo;In my career I have always focused on taking titles at the big championships, but when I was asked to take a shot at the world hour record, I did not hesitate. My tactic? It will be a question of maintaining an even pace.
&ldquo;The first 10 to 15 km Bashir and I will certainly stay together. Then we will see. Bashir has his own goals. We are good friends off the track, but we each go our own way in the race.&rdquo;
If Farah succeeds in his bid to better Gebrselassie&rsquo;s 13-year-old effort, he will officially become the 12th man in history to hold the one-hour world record, reclaiming a distinction that was first achieved by a fellow Briton, Alf Shrubb, in 1904 when, despite &ldquo;a violent breeze and sodden track&rdquo; he covered 18,742m in his designated time, breaking records for six, seven, eight, nine, 10 and 11 miles en route.
Since then this blue riband achievement has passed among other legends of the sport including France&rsquo;s 1912 Olympic 5000m silver medallist Jean Bouin, the &lsquo;Flying Finn&rsquo; Paavo Nurmi, Emil Zatopek, Ron Clarke, Gaston Roelants, Jos Hermens and of course Gebrselassie.
When Hermens improved his own world record to 20,944m at the all-weather track in Papendal in May 1976 he pioneered technological support that will be available to the runners on Friday, having police beacons placed at each 200m mark which would flash roughly twice a minute to indicate the precise world record pace.
&ldquo;This would tell me during the race without having to worry about watches and time splits whether I was on schedule,&rdquo; he told World Athletics this week. &ldquo;I guess it was the first form of Wavelight technology.&rdquo;
Hermens came up with the Wavelight concept in which flashing lights are fitted to track rail to aid athlete pacing as seen at Diamond League meets in Oslo and Monaco this year, and which will be in place on the King Baudouin Stadium track.
Hermens also arranged for a playlist of his favourite tunes to be broadcast during his effort, and Farah and Abdi have done the same thing, with the help of suggestions by fans via social media.
Meanwhile the audience simulation technology that has been used at meetings this season, artfully employing recordings of previous competitions to enliven the atmosphere, will also be in play on Friday.
&ldquo;I'm really looking forward to it!&rdquo; Farah added. &ldquo;We are going to make a great show in Brussels.&rdquo;
The women&rsquo;s one-hour race involves a fascinating struggle between two of the world&rsquo;s outstanding athletes as Hassan and Kosgei attack the mark of 18,517m set by Ethiopia&rsquo;s Dire Tune at the Ostrava Golden Spike meeting in 2008.
Last year in Doha Hassan became the only athlete in history to win the 1500m and 10,000m at a single World Championships. In 2019 she also become the world record-holder for the 5km road race &ndash; running 14:44&ndash; and the mile, where she clocked 4:12.33, with both events being held in Monaco. 
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Sifan Hassan wins the 5000m at the Diamond League final in Brussels</div>
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Her range stretches &ndash; for the moment &ndash; to the half marathon, where she set the European record of 1:05:15 at Copenhagen in 2018.
Kosgei, 26, bettered that time on September 8 last year when she won the Great North Run in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1:04:28, although that mark could not be officially ratified by World Athletics because of the nature of the course.
There were no asterisks involved just over a month later, however, when she retained her Chicago Marathon title in a world record time of 2:14:04, a personal best of more than four minutes which bettered Paula Radcliffe&rsquo;s 2003 mark of 2:15:25.
She finished more than six minutes ahead of the nearest challenger, Ethiopia&rsquo;s Ababel Yeshaneh, who in February of this year set the official world half marathon record of 1:04:31 in Ras Al Khaimah.
And she is determined to make her mark in the Belgian capital as she prepares for the defence of her London Marathon title on October 4.
Also in the field is Israel&rsquo;s Lonah Chemtai Salpeter, the European 10,000m champion.
Norway&rsquo;s 19-year-old European 1500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen, whose consolation for two narrow defeats by Kenya&rsquo;s world champion Timothy Cheruiyot this season has been a European record of 3:28.68, will return to the track once again for the metric mile.
While Cheruiyot will not be present on this occasion, the wonderboy will nevertheless face a strong field which includes Spanish duo Jesus Gomez, the European indoor bronze medallist, and world indoor 800m bronze medallist Saul Ordonez.
The field for the men&rsquo;s pole vault is due to include world record-holder Armand Duplantis of Sweden, Olympic champion Thiago Braz of Brazil and US vaulter Christopher Nilsen, who beat Duplantis to the NCAA title last year. 
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Pole vault winner Mondo Duplantis at the Diamond League meeting in Stockholm</div>
&nbsp;
Duplantis will come fresh from the outdoor personal best clearance of 6.07m he required to beat Sam Kendricks in the Wanda Diamond League exhibition event in Lausanne, where the US vaulter cleared 6.02m, his second-best ever height behind the 6.06m he managed last year.
The 20-year-old phenomenon, who cleared 6.17m and 6.18m indoors earlier this season, will try to put himself in a position to have another go at beating 6.14m, the best ever outdoor mark set by Sergey Bubka in 1994.
Belgium&rsquo;s Ben Broeders will hope to improve upon his national record of 5.76m in such strong company.
The men&rsquo;s one-hour race was also to have featured Sondre Nordstad Moen, who set a European 25,000m record in June at the Oslo Diamond League &lsquo;Impossible Games&rsquo; exhibition meeting, clocking 1:12:46.5. The Norwegian withdrew from the race earlier this week, although he says he will be fit and ready for the London Marathon.
Unfortunately for home fans, achilles tendon problems have prevented Belgium&rsquo;s Olympic heptathlon champion Nafissatou Thiam from taking part in a planned &lsquo;triathlon&rsquo;.
While the shot put element of that event has been cancelled, the 100m hurdles and high jump remain, and both will feature the Briton who took the world title from Thiam in Doha last year, Katarina Johnson-Thompson.
With a personal best of 13.09, and a season&rsquo;s best of 13.73, Johnson-Thompson will be challenged in the high hurdles by the presence of Dutch athlete Sharona Bakker and Belgium&rsquo;s Anne Zagre, who have respective bests of 12.85 and 12.71.
In the high jump the Briton will face Australia&rsquo;s Nicola McDermott, whose personal best of 1.98m, set this season, matches hers. Sweden&rsquo;s Erica Kinsey, with a best of 1.97m, is also in the field.
In place of the cancelled shot put there is now a women&rsquo;s 100m featuring 20-year-old home sprinter Rani Rosius, who recently won the Belgian title in this stadium with a time of 11.39, the second-fastest national time behind the record of 11.04 set by 2006 European champion Kim Gevaert.
Home eyes in the men&rsquo;s 200m will be upon Jonathan Borl&eacute;e as he races against Italy&rsquo;s Eseosa Desalu, while Polish duo Iga Baumgart-Witan and Patrycja Wyciszkiewicz-Zawadzka will clash in the women's 400m.
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics

The King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels will be empty of spectators for Friday night’s Wanda Diamond League exhibition meeting but brimming with ambition as the 44th edition of the AG Memorial Van Damme will see three world records being targeted. 

World records under threat in Brussels

World pole vault record-holder Armand Duplantis will be gunning for his 12th consecutive victory in the 2020 season at a special city centre pole vault competition in Lausanne on Wednesday (2).&nbsp;
Due to current coronavirus pandemic restrictions in Switzerland, organisers of Lausanne's annual Athletissima Wanda Diamond League fixture have opted to scale back the meeting this year to focus on the pole vault - both men and women - and to once again bring the event out of the stadium. That will allow up to 1000 spectators who will be stationed in four separate spectator zones in order to comply with local social distancing regulations.
On the men's side, Duplantis, who improved his world lead to 6.01m in Stockholm last month, will be the centre of attention.
"I am starting to get the feeling back that I had at the start of the indoor season," he said. "I feel I am getting into a good shape." Duplantis also topped 6.00m in Monaco, and in Stockholm, where he battled swirling winds, managed one solid attempt at 6.15m.
He'll take on world champion Sam Kendricks who improved his 2020 best to 5.82m in Chorzow, Poland, one week ago.
The 2019 NCAA and Pan-American Games champion Chris Nilsen, another rising star in the event, is also on the slate in his first outdoor competition of the year. The 22-year-old topped 5.95m last year and scaled 5.93m indoors in February.
Others on the start list include Olympic champion Thiago Braz, 2011 world champion Pawel Wojciechowski and Renaud Lavillenie, the former world record-holder, who will return to action after a broken left thumb forced him to the sidelines in recent weeks.
Pole Piotr Lisek, another member of the event's six-metre club, has withdrawn with a calf injury that also forced him to the sidelines at two recent competitions at home. Lisek improved the meeting record to 6.01m last year.
Both the men's and women's events will take place concurrently.
Like Duplantis, Holly Bradshaw also arrives riding a wave of momentum after her 4.69m victory in Stockholm, her first in Diamond League competition, just shy of her 4.73m season's best.
"Last year I finished third at 4.72m," she said. "This year will be competitive, and I hope to finish in the top two."
Sweden will also be well represented on the women's side with Michaela Meijer and Angelica Bengtsson leading the charge. Meijer has topped 4.83m this season to currently sit second on the world season's list while Bengtsson comes armed with a 4.71m season's best.
"2020 has been my best year so far, said Meijer, 27, who nabbed silver at the World U18 Championships back in 2009. "I handled it well this year due to Covid-19 and therefore had more time to get better."
Tina Sutej, who raised her own Slovenian record to 4.75m in July, should also be in the hunt.
Bob Ramsak for World Athletics

World pole vault record-holder Armand Duplantis will be gunning for his 12th consecutive victory in the 2020 season at a special city centre pole vault competition in Lausanne on Wednesday (2). 