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Armand Duplantis: At 6.02 meters to gold
Photo:
VEGARD WIVESTAD GRoTT / imago images / Bildbyran
The Swedish top star Armand Duplantis won Olympic gold in the pole vault in Tokyo and thus continued his legendary success story.
The only 21-year-old world record holder triumphed on Tuesday with 6.02 meters in front of the American Christopher Nielsen (5.97).
Bronze went to Rio Olympic champion Thiago Braz from Brazil (5.87).
In an unparalleled show of force, Duplantis only needed five jumps to secure gold.
5.55 - 5.80 - 5.92 - 5.97 - 6.02 meters: He mastered all heights in the first attempt.
Duplantis finally failed three times at the world record height of 6.19 meters.
In the first attempt, he tore the bar in the downward movement very thinly with his chest.
Braz thus retains his Olympic record of 6.03 meters.
Duplantis, the son of an American father and a Swedish mother, was born in the USA. He became European champion in Berlin in 2018 at the age of 18, and a year later he narrowly missed the world championship title in Doha and took silver.
The early starter could shape an era that even the legendary Sergej Bubka failed to do.
Duplantis has already secured almost all the major records.
In 2020 he first jumped 6.18 meters in the hall, which is also a general world record.
In the summer he improved the outdoor record of the great Sergej Bubka by one centimeter to 6.15 - which the world association does not consider to be a world record in its own right.
Lavillenie weakened from injury
London Olympic champion Renaud Lavillenie (France), Duplantis' predecessor as a world record holder, did not go beyond seventh place with 5.70 meters in Tokyo.
World champion Sam Kendricks (USA) had tested positive for Corona in Tokyo and was therefore not at the start.
The German pole vaulters were disappointed.
The German champion Oleg Zernikel (Landau) and the World Cup fourth Bo Kanda Lita Baehre (Leverkusen) did not get more than 5.70 meters and finished ninth and eleven.
Torben Blech (Leverkusen) was already eliminated in the qualification, ex-world champion Raphael Holzdeppe (Zweibrücken) had not qualified for Tokyo.
mey / sid
