Duplantis soars to win and world record

The Swede lights up the Tokyo Worlds by setting another world record; Sreeshankar fails to qualify for the long jump final

- N Ananthanarayanan

Before picking up his pole and heading to the top of the runway, the Armand Duplantis routine included cooling himself with a miniature fan. The Tokyo humidity perhaps was the only irritant for the hottest property in world athletics and shining light in global sport who stamped his class again at the World Athletics Championships on Monday.

The 25-year-old Swede has dominated the men's pole vault to such an extent in the last five years that victory for him was a given going into the final. Having already set three world records this year, the rest of the field knew they would be done by the time Duplantis even got to the business end of his competition.

On Monday, Duplantis won his third straight world title alright, but treated the thousands of fans who had stayed back at the Japan National Stadium past 11 pm to drama and a slice of pole vault history, soaring to his 14th world record by clearing 6.30 metres.

Emmanouil Karalis of Greece, the only man to provide even a semblance of competition to Duplantis, too cleared 6 metres, but his fight ended there. While the Swedish superstar breezed through 5.55, 5.85, 6.00, 6.10 and 6.15 - just five attempts to wrap up the gold medal - Karalis, in a desperate bid to stay in the fight went up from 6.10 and 6.15 to 6.20 after failing in his first try at each height. The Duplantis show took over after that.