Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis of Sweden kicked off his outdoor season in an impressive manner at the Xiamen Diamond League meeting by breaking his own pole vault world record. The 24-year-old athlete, who holds the titles of Olympic, two-time world, and European champion, cleared a height of 6.24 meters on his first attempt at the Egret Stadium. This marks an improvement of 1cm from his previous record set in Eugene last year.
Duplantis started the competition at 5.62m and smoothly cleared heights of 5.82m and 6.00m before ultimately setting the new world record. This achievement marks his eighth world record in the pole vault discipline. Following Duplantis, American Sam Hendricks finished in second place with a best height of 5.82m, while Bokai Huang from China secured third place with a height of 5.72m.