Swede Mondo Duplantis broke his own pole vault world record when he rose to gold at the World Indoor Championships on Sunday, but Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s attempt to further underline his 1500m dominance failed to materialize. US native Duplantis cleared 6.20 meters for the third time, 1cm better than his previous best set at the same Stark Arena in Belgrade just two weeks ago. Once big rivals Chris Nilsen and Thiago Braz fell by the wayside, Duplantis didn’t hesitate to raise the bar to a record high.
The Swede kept hitting the air as he went clear, his attention now turned to an outdoor world title in Eugene, Oregon, in July.
“I can’t complain to break the world record twice in two weeks,” said Duplantis.
“The sky is the limit. Another title, another world record – it was a pretty good day. Going over the 6.20m for the first time, it’s hard to explain. It’s something you can only dream of. “
Ingebrigtsen was outpaced to the line of a high quality race by Ethiopian Samuel Tefera, one of two champions alongside long jump home favorite Ivana Vuleta who showed all their experience en route to the successful defense of their titles.
After Yulimar Rojas of Venezuela’s incredible world record in the morning session triple jump, American Grant Holloway set off even more fireworks when he equaled his own indoor world record of 7.29sec in the semifinals of the 60m hurdles before taking that gold to his world title. on the 110 meters outside.
All eyes were previously on Ingebrigts, who set a world record in the 1500 meters indoor last month.
But Tefera had other ideas and took on the mighty challenge of the Norwegian Olympic gold medalist with a championship record of 3:32.77 for the win.
Ingebrigts took silver 0.25sec behind, with Kenya’s Abel Kipsang taking bronze.
The 21-year-old Norwegian led for most of the race until Tefera made his move in the last corner, leveled and then passed the Norwegian, who had no more kick in him to react.
“I came here for the gold medal, so of course I’m disappointed,” said Ingebrigtsen. “I’ve been the best this season, so I expected more.”
– Vuleta triumphs at home –
Fittingly, Vuleta stole the show in the long jump, delighting a large, raucous partisan crowd in the Serbian capital by claiming back-to-back gold.
Vuleta, born Spanovic, rose to 7.06m on her fourth attempt, enough to push Nigerian Olympic bronze medalist Ese Brume to silver (6.85) while Briton Lorraine Ugen took bronze (6.82).
“My medal was like icing on the cake,” said Vuleta. “It was like an exit experience. I had no easy task jumping in front of my home crowd. That built the tension for me.”
A day after Yaroslava Mahuchikh emotionally won gold for the six-man Ukrainian team in the women’s high jump, her teammate Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk claimed silver behind Rojas in the triple jump.
But a quick turnaround saw the Ukrainian finish sixth in the medal tally in the long jump.
Holloway and Ajee Wilson made sure there were two American gold medals on the third and final night in Belgrade.
Holloway made no mistake in the 60m hurdles, the Olympic silver medalist raced to victory in 7.39 seconds ahead of Frenchman Pascal Martinot-Lagarde in 7.50.
“To come and run a world record, be a world leader, to win a title and call myself world champion again, it’s an amazing feeling,” said Holloway.
“World champion outdoor and world champion indoor – that sounds good!”
And Wilson made up for her two previous silver medals by giving a tactical masterclass to finish the women’s 800m, coming forward at the bell and keeping her form through the line for the win in 1 min and 59.09 sec.
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Belgium and Jamaica closed the evening session by winning the men’s and women’s 4x400m relay respectively.
(This story was not edited by DailyExpertNews staff and was generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)
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