Mondo Duplantis soared to new heights as he cleared 6.27m on Friday for his 11th pole vault world record at the All Star Perche meet in Clermont-Ferrand, France.
Duplantis, 25, cleared the height on his first attempt, adding another centimeter to the record he already set last August at the Diamond League meet in Silesia.
At Friday’s meet Duplantis was seemingly in a league of his own as the second place finisher, Emmanouil Karalis, cleared 6.02m. However, the competition marked the first time that six vaulters cleared 5.91m or higher in an event.
“I just felt really good,” Duplantis said to reporters. “What can I say — I came here to do it. I put everything in place to do it. The run-up worked really well. I just did it.”
But as Duplantis continues to push limits of the pole vault world, he has nudged the height by one centimeter in all of his record setting jumps since 2020. He also electrified the crowd at Stade de France in a gold medal performance at the Paris Olympics last July when he cleared 6.25m.
His feat in Paris was the first time since 1980 that a world record height in the pole vault was cliched in an Olympic final.
Duplantis is aiming for a third straight world indoor title in March at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China. He cleared 6.05m at last year’s championships in Glasgow, Scotland.
Meanwhile, Duplantis kicked off the day on a different high note as he released his first song, “Bop,” prior to the competition.
The song was played in the arena during his record setting height and he revealed he timed the released for Friday’s competition.
“When I made this song a couple of months ago, I thought this would be a perfect song to jump to here. That’s why I rushed it out,” he said.
