For a few minutes, Mondo Duplantis looked far from his normal self in the pole vault final at the Glasgow 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships on Sunday (3 March).
Having cleared 5.65m and skipped 5.75m, the super Swede was as shocked as the crowd as he flicked the bar off on the way up at 5.85m.
Meanwhile, the last man to beat him in a major competition – 2017 and 2019 world champion Sam Kendricks – was putting together a flawless series with a first-time clearance at 5.85m his fourth success out of four.
And after Emmanouil Karalis of Greece went over first time, Duplantis failed again in almost identical fashion.
The tension in the arena was palpable with the 24-year-old looking utterly bemused before going to the stands to chat to his parents Greg and Helena.
But on the third attempt, he was successful with a yawning gap between his body and the bar. Stlll, he looked stunned at how he had ended up in this position, smacking his palm against his forehead before walking off the crash mat.
After skipping 5.90m, which Kendricks again cleared first time, Duplantis went over 5.95m at the second time of asking with a distinct lack of celebration.
That put him in control of the competition, and victory was secure when Karalis went out and Kendricks failed twice at 5.95m before an unsuccessful attempt at 6.00m.
That was far from the end of proceedings as Duplantis raised the bar to 6.05m and pulled out a new longer pole in anticipation of a potential world record attempt.
After two abortive attempts, he made the third with ease and finally showed off the familiar smile which had been previously absent.
The bar then went up to 6.24m, a new world record height. He had two good attempts, but pulled out on the way up on his third with history having to wait for another day.
In his post-competition interview in the arena alongside Kendricks, when asked if why he wanted to put on a show for the Glasgow crowd, he replied, “I had no choice because Sam was on my butt the whole competition!
“I had to bring whatever I had because I knew Sam was going to bring his ‘A’ game. It’s the first time I’ve beaten Sam in a championship meet so I’m really happy about that. It was about time.”
Duplantis set his second world record in Glasgow back in 2020 and said, “Two times I’ve been here, they’ve been amazing competitions. Hopefully it’s not the last.”
