Paris: Sweden’s Armand Duplantis broke his own world record as he successfully defended his pole vault title at the Paris Olympics.
Duplantis cleared 6.25m with his third and final attempt late on Monday to eclipse his previous mark of 6.24m set in April.
American Sam Kendricks took silver and Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis claimed bronze.
“The party is going to be pretty big,” the 24-year-old replied when asked what his plans were for the night ahead. “Not that much sleep, a lot of partying, a good time.”
Duplantis, a two-time world champion who has broken the world record nine times, is the first man since American Bob Richards in 1952-1956 to win back-to-back Olympic pole vault titles, reports Xinhua.
He said the crowd had spurred him on as he sought to break his world record with the gold medal already guaranteed.
“I was just trying to channel the energy everybody was giving me, and they were giving me a lot of it. It worked out,” he added.
Kendricks produced a season-best leap of 5.95m to finish ahead of Karalis and Ernest Obiena of the Philippines, who each cleared 5.90.
–IANS
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