Birmingham : World record-holding, multi-time Olympic and world champion pole vault superstar Mondo Duplantis broke the championship record to capture the European Championship for the fourth successive time at Birmingham.
On Sunday, Duplantis cleared 6.15 metres. The 27-year-old Swedish star and Emmanouil Karalis were the only athletes to clear 6.00m.
Duplantis eventually equalled the European Championship record of 6.10 m before breaking it to set a new record of 6.15 m, as per Olympics.com. After the championship record and victory were sealed, there were expectations that Duplantis would outdo his world record of 6.31 again, which he had set on home soil in March this year. But he did not go for the attempt.
Karalis took home the silver with 6.00 m, his second successive medal at the European Championships, while France's Thierry Baptiste, who cleared 5.85m, took bronze. Earlier in March, he made history at the World Athletics Indoor Championships, becoming the first-ever man to secure four successive world indoor pole vault titles and setting a new championship record in the process.
Following Australian Kurtis Mascharll's attempt of 6.00 m to secure the bronze, the fight for the gold medal was down to Mondo and Greece's Emmanouil Karalis, as per Olympics.com. Karalis, confident after securing his personal best attempt of 6.17 m in the home championships just a few weeks back, managed to pass 6.10 m and 6.15 m. Mondo managed to clear both heights with ease in his first attempt.
When Karalis failed to reach 6.20 m in his first attempt, Mondo soared higher, to a record-breaking 6.25 m, outclassing his own championship record of 6.20 m from the 2022 edition in Belgrade.