Last act of Oregon 2022 sees pole vault star break the world record again

As it so often does, the last word went to Mondo Duplantis.

Just as the home crowd’s cheers began to die following the gold medal-winning success of USA’s men’s and women’s 4x400m relay teams, all eyes fell on the Olympic champion.

After 10 days of competition at Hayward Field, he was the last man standing – the final athlete competing. Duplantis had long made sure of the first pole vault world title of his already stellar career and now it was time to answer the question which is so often asked of him – could he break the world record again?

With a clearance of 6.20m at the World Indoor Championships during the spring he had raised the bar for his event again, while a leap of 6.16m at the Stockholm Diamond League – which had been the highest ever outdoors – showed he was in fine form ahead of Eugene.

After going over 6.06m at the first time of asking, his sights were immediately set on 6.21m. There was a first-time failure but we have learned not to doubt the American-born Swede, who produced a wonderful send-off for Oregon 2022 by sailing over with room to spare.

As the crowd erupted he ran, leapt and somersaulted in celebration. The set of European, Olympic and world gold medals was now complete.

“Actually, I didn’t think about the record that much today,” said the 22-year-old American-born Swede who broke a tie with Sergey Bubka by clearing six metres for the 47^th time in his career.

“Usually, it is always somewhere in the back of my mind but today I was really focused on the win and I really wanted to win the gold so badly. It was the medal I was missing. So when I was on this height, it was like everything came together and it happened from there. I love jumping in Eugene and it was amazing here. I cannot figure the next heights right now.”

The fans planning to attend the European Championships in Munich will find out.

For the record, the USA’s Chris Nilsen was the silver medallist with a best of 5.94m on countback from Ernest John Obiena, who broke the Asian record.

Mondo Duplantis, however, is playing a different game from everyone else.