Mondo Duplantis opens outdoor season with 6.24m world record

Reigning Olympic and world pole vault champion puts on impressive show of strength at Xiamen Diamond League, while Gudaf Tsegay also gets off to a brilliant start

Until this weekend Mondo Duplantis had never been to China. He made sure his first visit was unforgettable, though, after breaking the men’s pole vault world record with a clearance of 6.24m at the Diamond League meeting in Xiamen on Saturday (April 20).

In his opening outdoor competition of the season, the Swede added one centimetre to the mark he set at the Diamond League final in Eugene last September.

Even though he retained his world indoor title last month, the two-time world outdoor champion had struggled to find top form and took gold with 6.10m in Glasgow.

There were no such problems in China, where the 24-year-old was back to his imperious best as he produced first-time clearances at 5.62m, 5.82m and 6.00m before immediately setting his sights on the record height.

It only took him one effort to make history again, too, overtaking his mark with room to spare – the eighth time he has broken the world record during what is already an extraordinary career.

“This is my first time in China and it’s exciting to get my season going,” said Duplantis, who will defend his European and Olympic titles in Rome and Paris this summer.

“The indoor season was sloppier than I would have liked so I had some fire in me today. I think there are still some higher heights in me.”

American former world champion Sam Kendricks was a distant runner-up with 5.82m, while Chinese Bokai Huang was third with 5.72m.

Another athlete to open their outdoor campaign in impressive style in China was Gudaf Tsegay, who produced the third-fastest time in history when winning the women’s 1500m. Her run of 3:50.30 sits only behind Faith Kipyegon’s world record of 3:49.11 and Genzebe Dibaba’s 3:50.07 on the all-time lists.

The reigning 10,000m world champion led home an Ethiopian clean sweep of the top three places, with Birke Haylom clocking a PB of 3:53.22 in second and Worknesh Mesele coming third with 3:57.61.

There was a surprise win in the women’s 200m, as 19-year-old Australian Torrie Lewis marked her first ever Diamond League appearance by pipping world 100m champion Sha’Carri Richardson to victory from lane nine with a time of 22.96 (-0.4). The American seemed to dip almost too early as she had to settle for second with 22.99 as fellow American Tamara Clark ran 23.01.

Honours in the men’s 100m went to former world champion Christian Coleman, whose 10.13 (-0.6) was enough to hold off Fred Kerley (10.17) and Jamaican Ackeem Blake (10.20).

World leads also arrived in the men’s 800m (Marco Arop with 1:43.61) and and 110m hurdles (Daniel Roberts with 13.11), as well as the women’s 3000m steeplechase (8:55.40 for Beatrice Chepkoech).

» Full meeting results here

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Mondo Duplantis opens outdoor season with 6.24m world record appeared first on AW.