The China Mail - Sweden's Duplantis - pole vault's invincible superstar

The 24-year-old US-born prodigy, often described as a rock star of athletics by World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe, set a new world record of 6.25 metres as he claimed a second gold.

It was the first time in 68 years, since Bob Richards in 1952 and 1956, that a vaulter has won back-to-back titles.

Duplantis has been practically unbeatable over the last five years, winning every major title in the sport after being beaten at the Doha worlds in 2019 by American Sam Kendricks, who won silver on Monday.

Duplantis won Olympic gold in Tokyo three years ago before winning back-to-back outdoor World Championships in 2022 and 2023. He added two world indoor crowns in 2022 and 2024 as well as three straight European Championship titles in 2018, 2022 and 2024.

He is not immune to setting world records at global championships and Paris was the third time. It was also his ninth successive progression of the mark.

He broke the record twice in 2020, three times in 2022, twice in 2023 and for the first time this year, in April in the Xiamen Diamond League meet.

Duplantis said you get used to the pressure of being the man everyone wants to beat.

"Every competition I go to I'm going to be a big favourite. It is what it is. The reason for that is that I have been showing it as well," he said.

"I go into every competition trying to jump as high as I possibly can. I think it should be enough to do what I know I can do. You get used to it and you know how to control it."

Coached by his American father Greg, a former pole vaulter, Duplantis is a product of a track and field-crazy family which had their own vaulting apparatus in the garden, though he insists he was no "lab rat".

"I started pole vaulting when I was about four years old," Duplantis has said.

The six-time Louisiana state champion, who spent summers with his Swedish maternal grandparents in Sweden, added: "When you have a pole vault pit in your back yard, you're going to try it.

"I fell in love with pole vault at a young age and stuck with it."

Duplantis had already surpassed his father's personal best by the age of 17.

He announced his prodigious talent to a wider audience when he won the European outdoor title in Berlin in 2018 with a vault of 6.05m, a world junior record.

From then on, apart from the "blip" in Qatar, it has been a bed of roses for Duplantis, whose world record now stands a massive 9cm further than a previous best by another jumper, France’s Renaud Lavillenie.

The only rival to have hit the 6m barrier is American Chris Nilsen in Eugene in February. He was absent from Paris and his closest rival on the day was Kendricks with 5.95m.

Such is his dominance, Duplantis often enters competition when half the field have already bombed out.

He is then left in his element, goading the public into raucous support as he first nails victory and then ups the bar for a world record attempt.

So it was at a packed Stade de France, Duplantis playing his part to perfection in a performance that could not have been better scripted.

B.Clarke--ThChM