Four days after coming agonisingly close to breaking the pole vault world record in Dusseldorf, Mondo Duplantis cleared 6.17m at an indoor meeting in Torun, Poland, becoming the first man to do so.
Duplantis bettered the six-year-old 6.16m record of Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie with the clearance. He did so on his second attempt at the height and just his sixth vault of the night. Remarkably, the competition was just his second event of the season.
"It's crazy, I don't know how to explain it - it doesn't feel like it's really happening right now," the 20-year-old American-born Swede told World Athletics.
"It kind of feels fake, this whole thing, like I didn't actually break the world record, like there's a catch to it or something.
"My whole life, I wanted that moment right there. I was a lot more focused - I really wanted it. Especially after the first attempt, I thought I had a good chance at it. I was like, 'These next two attempts, one of them, I've got to get over it'. I didn't want to leave today empty-handed without that world record. I made sure I got it."
Duplantis's progression
Age 6: 1.67m
Age 7: 2.33m*
Age 8: 2.89m*
Age 9: 3.20m*
Age 10: 3.86m*
Age 11: 3.91m*
Age 12: 3.97m(i)*
Age 13: 4.15m
Age 14: 4.75m(i)
Age 15: 5.30m
Age 16: 5.51m
Age 17: 5.90m*
Age 18: 6.05m*
Age 19: 6.00m
Age 20: 6.17m* WR
* = world age best— Jon Mulkeen (@Statman_Jon) February 9, 2020
As he drank in the achievement and celebrated with the crowd, his mother and fellow competitors, the competition judge had to ask if he wanted to go again.
"Mid-celebration, he asked did I want to go to 6.18 and I was like, 'Nah, I think we'll save that for another day'," said Duplantis.
"I was pretty OK with the 6.17, for now."
