By Michael Gleeson
Copyright brisbanetimes
In the steam of Tokyo’s national stadium Duplantis broke the world poke vault record for a 14th time. Thirteen of those times he’s broken his own record.
To put his imperiousness into context: the silver medal was won by Emmanouil Karalis of Greece who was the only other man to clear six metres. Marschall once more won bronze with a jump of 5.95m and once again the 6m mark was a bridge too far.
Just as he did two years ago – and in every other meet he has competed in for years Mondo Duplantis won gold. Of course he did. He has the last two Olympic gold medals, and now a third successive world championship title. He has cleared 6 metres more times than any other man in history.
He was asked in Tokyo to clear 6.15m to safeguard gold. He did it at a first attempt, and it looked effortless, but he had the grace to celebrate like it was not.
No disrespect to Karalis or Marschall here but it felt like Duplantis was playing a different sport. They were playing croquet while he was on the golf course.
