08/03/2021 11:16 AM
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 08/03/2021 11:16
Swede Armand Duplantis finished off his dominant Olympic cycle with the gold medal at the Tokyo Games, which he could not accompany with a new world record, although he came very close to beating it in the first and third attempts on 6.19.
Owner of the 6.18 record since February 2020 and absolute dominator of the event in the last two seasons, the American who decided to represent his mother's country had one goal left: to win the Olympics.
And he did it without problems in Tokyo, being
the only athlete to jump 6.02 meters to get gold
.
The 21-year-old athlete surpassed on the podium the American Christopher Nielsen (5.97 m, silver) and the Brazilian Thiago Braz (5.87 m), Olympic champion of Rio 2016 and owner of the Olympic record (6.03), whom Duplantis I watched on TV when I was 16 and was already jumping five and a half meters.
Armand Duplantis's spectacular leap to gold for the first time at an Olympic Games.
Photo Michael Kappeler / dpa
With the Olympic title in his pocket, Duplantis then set out to attempt to break his own world record (achieved on a World Athletics Indoor Tour date) by facing the 6.19 meter bar.
He could not achieve it and ended the contest with gold but without being able to accompany him with a world record, as the Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas (15.67 m, triple jump) and the Norwegian Karsten Warholm (45.94, 400 have achieved so far in Tokyo 2020 meters hurdles).
Duplantis revealed himself to the world with the title of European champion in Berlin in 2018, at the age of 19, and in 2019 he was world runner-up in Doha, behind Sam Kendricks, the only one who has beaten him, once, this year.
In February 2020 he confirmed his enormous progression by beating the world record (first 6.17 and then 6.18 meters).
And on September 17, 2020, as the world battled the coronavirus pandemic, it jumped off the last great record of Ukrainian Sergey Bubka by setting 6.15 the best outdoor pole vault record since 1994.
In Tokyo, his greatest rival was not there.
The current world champion, American Sam Kendricks, tested positive for covid-19 in Japan and has been in isolation since the middle of last week.
Nor could Renaud Lavillenie fight for the medals, Olympic champion in London 2012 and world exlusmarista (6.16).
The Frenchman, who had arrived in Japan recovering from a problem in his left ankle, fell during the warm-up and appeared with a bandage on his right ankle and a face that did not augur a happy contest.
He delayed his debut at 5.70, which jumped to the first, but could not with 5.80 and finished eighth.
Armand Duplantis and Christopher Nilsen, in an uneven heads up at the pole vault finale.
Photo AP Photo / Matthias Schrader
The ribbon at this height, in which Duplantis reserved, selected the three medalists (also jumped by Nilsen and Braz).
The next (5.92) discarded Braz, and the contest turned into an uneven heads-up between Mondo and Nilsen.
The two jumped to the first 5.97, but the American, who was already on a personal record, could not with 6.02.
Duplantis did, and was left alone with the bar at 6.19 trying to beat by one centimeter the world record that he set with 6.18 on February 15, 2020 at the indoor track in Glasgow.
On his first attempt he was suspended for a second before falling and on the third he was also very close.
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