Mondo Duplantis Cleared Six Metres Twenty on a Faultless Card in Budapest and Then Failed Three Times at a World Record
The Swede won the Ultimate Championship pole vault without a single miss before three unsuccessful attempts at 6.32m, a centimetre above his own world record.
Armand Duplantis, known as Mondo, arrived in Budapest for the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship having withdrawn from the Diamond League Final, making the pole vault on 11 September his first competition in several weeks. The National Athletics Centre is the stadium where he won his second world title and set the thirteenth world record of his career.
Duplantis opened at 5.60m, passed 5.80m and then cleared 5.95m, 6.05m, 6.15m and 6.20m, each at the first attempt. The faultless card gave him the title at 6.20m and $150,000 in prize money.
Emmanouil Karalis of Greece took second with 6.15m and Sondre Guttormsen of Norway third with 5.95m. Duplantis then had the bar raised to 6.32m, one centimetre above his own world record, and failed three times.
The win adds an Ultimate Championship title to two Olympic golds, three outdoor world titles and four world indoor titles. Broadcasters framed it as his ninth consecutive global title.