Armand Duplantis sets 6.31-meter world record

Swedish pole vault star Armand Duplantis, often called the “human bird,” has set the 15th world record of his career.

Duplantis cleared 6.31 meters at the Mondo Classic men’s pole vault competition on March 13 at IFU Arena in Uppsala, Sweden. The mark surpassed his previous world record of 6.30 meters, which he set at the world championships in September last year, by 1 centimeter. He cleared 5.65 meters, 5.90 meters and 6.08 meters on his first attempts before raising the bar by 23 centimeters. Duplantis then secured the new record without a single failed jump.

Duplantis first rewrote the indoor world record in February 2020 at a World Athletics Indoor Tour meeting in Torun, Poland, clearing 6.17 meters. The jump eclipsed the previous indoor world record of 6.16 meters set by France’s Renaud Lavillenie in 2014, ending a six-year hold on the mark. Since then, Duplantis has steadily pushed the limit higher, improving the record by 1 centimeter at a time. The only athlete to break the pole vault world record more often is the original “human bird,” retired Ukrainian great Sergey Bubka, who reset the mark 17 times during the 1980s and 1990s.

“All the athletes performed so well that I felt a bit of pressure, but the energy in the arena was incredible,” Duplantis said. “I’m proud to set a world record in front of the Swedish crowd.”

Duplantis will try to break his own world record for the 16th time at the World Athletics Indoor Championships scheduled for later this month in Torun.

조영우 jero@donga.com