Armand Duplantis, the Swedish Olympic gold medallist, surpassed his previous world record on Friday at the All Star Pole Vault competition held in Clermont-Ferrand, France.
Having clinched the win by successfully clearing 6.07m, Duplantis subsequently challenged his own world record. He raised the height to 6.27 metres and accomplished the feat in his first try.
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"I just felt really good," Duplantis said. "What can I say, I came here to do it. I put everything in place to do it. The run-up worked really well. I just did it."
His previous record of 6.26 metres was established during a Diamond League competition in Chorzow, Poland, on August 25, 2024.
"Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's not, but there's a lot of hard work, hardship, bad days, good days, everything in between that gets you to the easier moments," he said. "It's always special (to break a world record). It's a crazy feeling every time. It's like a feeling of euphoria. It's hard to explain."
Since February 2020, when he first achieved 6.16m, Duplantis had incrementally surpassed his own record eleven times, each improvement measuring one centimetre.
Duplantis, aged 25, has now improved his record twice in Clermont-Ferrand, following his 6.22m achievement at the same venue in February 2023.
This accomplishment followed his Olympic victory in Paris, where he secured gold with his ninth world record of 6.25.
During Friday's event, both Duplantis and Olympic bronze medallist Emmanouil Karalis successfully cleared 6.02m. However, the Greek athlete withdrew after experiencing cramps, choosing to avoid potential injury.
Duplantis proceeded to clear 6.07m, breaking the deadlock, and subsequently had the bar raised by 20cm for a new world record that he went on to clear successfully.
