By Michael Gleeson
Copyright theage
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.
