World pole vault medallist attempts 6.17m at World Indoor Tour meeting

Armand Duplantis came close to breaking the world pole vault record in Düsseldorf on Tuesday, with three attempts at 6.17m at the World Athletics Indoor Tour meeting.

The world silver medallist cleared a world-leading and meeting record mark of 6.00m at what was his first competition of the year, improving his own Swedish indoor record. He then had the bar raised to a height which would have added one centimetre to Renaud Lavillenie’s world record set six years ago.

The 20-year-old, who has an outdoor best of 6.05m set when winning European gold in 2018, knocked off the bar with his feet during his first attempt at 6.17m but his second try was agonisingly close as he soared over the bar but then knocked it with his arm on the way back down.

His third attempt was also good, but not as impressive as his second.

There's no world record for @mondohoss600 today but how close was that second attempt at 6.17m! He wins the Düsseldorf pole vault competition with a WL and MR 6.00m, improving his own Swedish indoor record. His best is 6.05m outdoors #WorldIndoorTour https://t.co/ns94odtdny

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) February 4, 2020

Earlier in the competition, Duplantis had cleared 5.40m and 5.55m on his first attempts before needing two tries at 5.70m. He managed 5.80m on his first go and then passed at 5.85m, with only two-time world champion Sam Kendricks remaining in the competition at that stage.

That 5.80m would prove to be Kendricks’ best of the evening, while Duplantis went on to soar over 5.90m and 5.95m on his first attempts, later managing 6.00m on his second try.

“I thought it was possible,” he told World Athletics when asked about the world record. “That second attempt at 6.17m was as good as I could have expected.”

Beatrice Chepkoech’s winning Kenyan indoor 1500m record of 4:02.09 was also among the six world-leading marks set in Düsseldorf, with Filip Ingebrigtsen achieving another in the men’s event as he ran 3:36.32.

Selemon Barega won the 3000m in 7:35.71, while Filip Mihaljevic won the shot put with a 21.52m Croatian record throw and Neele Eckhardt won the triple jump with a 14.17m leap in front of home fans.

Another local winner was world 800m leader Marc Reuther as he won the four-lap event in 1:46.13 to beat Adam Kszczot with 1:46.42. The first 800m race had been won by Marcin Lewandowski in 1:47.23 as Guy Learmonth was fourth in 1:47.94.

Chijindu Ujah equaled his PB to win the men’s 60m in 6.53 after a 6.55 heat, while Gina Bass won the women’s final in a Gambian record of 7.16.

Christina Clemons clocked 7.91 to claim women’s 60m hurdles victory, while Yaqoub Mohamed Al Youha set a PB of 7.54 to win the men’s event and move to second on the Asian indoor all-time list. David King clocked 7.84 in eighth after a 7.77 heat.

Lisanne de Witte won the women’s 400m in 52.30.

Full results can be found here.