Duplantis sparkles at first Diamond

Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis is easily the most dominant athlete in any track and field discipline right now. He has been for years, in fact.

Duplantis cruised to pole vault victory in the opening Diamond League meeting of the season in Shanghai on Saturday, but failed to improve his own world record.

It was the first of 15 Diamond League events. His indoor campaign saw him break his 15th world record indoors in Uppsala in March’s ‘Mondo Classic,’ and become the first man to win four consecutive world indoor pole vault titles.

Duplantis’s indoor campaign also featured some experimentation, as he tinkered with the technique that has flown him into untouched sporting stratospheres.

Having flirted with an altered approach of two extra strides on his run-up, the Swede suggested it was one he was willing to stick with outdoors.

“I tried a bit of a longer approach; I tried 22 steps for the first time. I hadn’t really changed any part of my jump technically for the past five or six years.”

Duplantis, 26, already had victory sewn up in the pole vault after just two jumps before he eased to a new Shanghai meeting record in 6.12m.

He has not lost a competition since 2023. He raised the bar to a world record 6.32m but failed with all three attempts to beat his old mark.

There was a surprise in the men’s 100m as Gift Leotlela of South Africa pipped Ferdinand Omanyala and Kenneth Bednarek in a photo finish to win a Diamond League event for the first time.

High-quality women’s 200m and 100m hurdles were won by Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson and Olympic champion Masai Russell, respectively, but Karsten Warholm was shocked in the 300m hurdles.