Sweden’s Armand Duplantis captured the gold and soared to a new world record at the men’s Olympic pole vault final.
Sweden’s Armand Duplantis beat his own world record en route to retaining his Olympic pole vault title in Paris.
In a sensational finish to the fifth day of track and field at the Stade de France on Monday, Duplantis sailed over the bar raised to 6.25 metres to rapturous applause from a 69,000-capacity crowd.
It bettered by 1cm his previous best of 6.24 metres, set at the Xiamen Diamond League meet in April.
Remarkably, it was the ninth time the United States-born Swede had broken the record.
Team USA’s Sam Kendricks won silver with a best of 5.95 metres, with Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis taking bronze (5.90 metres) on countback.
The gold meant Duplantis became the first man to retain the pole vault title since American Bob Richards in 1952 and 1956.
After securing the victory, Duplantis, draped in the Swedish flag and with Abba’s Dancing Queen booming around the stadium, made an emotional lap of the track.
