Mondo Duplantis reminded the world once again on Tuesday why he is the king of the pole vault after he cleared 6.29m — a breaking his own world record — at the Istvan Gyulai Memorial in Budapest, Hungary.
In what is likely to be one of his final tuneups before world championships in Tokyo in September, Duplantis, 25, was in elite form in Budapest, the site of his 2023 world title.
But he gave a glimpse of what lies ahead next month, as he added a centimeter to his previous 6.28m world record that he set at Diamond League’s Stockholm meet in June. Duplantis has had a stellar year, with three world records in 2025 coming in the wake of a gold medal win at the Paris Olympics last July — where he broke is own world record with a 6.25m height.
Emmanouil Karalis took second on Tuesday with a 6.02m height and Kurtis Marschall finished third with 5.82m.
Karalis did pose an early challenge for Duplantis as both cleared 6.02m on their first attempts. But Karalis missed two chances to leap 6.11m and opened the chance for Duplantis to push forward.
Duplantis then cleared 6.11 on his second try and boosted the bar to 6.29m, just over his record heading into the meet, and soared over the height as the crowd at the National Athletics Centre roared.
