Sweden's Duplantis sets new pole vault record

Duplantis, competing for Sweden, his mother's home country and already European champion, added an extra centimeter to the previous highest level reached in 2014 by France's Renaud Lavillenie.

"It's something that I wanted since I was 3 years old," said the 20-year-old Duplantis, looking ahead to the Olympics in Tokyo in July.

It was a "good way" to start the year, said the former child prodigy who broke age-group records on his way to joining the world's pole elite. He was born and raised in the United States.

At the Qatar world championships last October he had won silver, chasing the US-American Sam Kendricks, who took gold at 5.92 meters.

Duplantis' record jump came on his second attempt Saturday at Torun, Poland.

Four days ago, he had missed the attempted record at a previous meet in Düsseldorf, Germany, when he brushed the bar on his way down.

His record Saturday still needs to be ratified by World Athletics, which is obliged to await confirmation of clean doping tests.

ipj/shs (AP, Reuters, SID)

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