By L A Adithya
The Swedish pole vault legend, Armand Duplantis, makes history yet again, breaking the men’s pole vault world record for an astonishing fourth time this year (2025) and 14th time in his career on Monday at the World Athletics Championship in Tokyo. He first toppled the record in Feb 2020, surpassing 6.17 meters, and now he’s cleared a sky-high height of 6.30 meters.
The stadium had all its eyes on the Swede, as the competition had reached its last event of the day. With eager anticipation, it was an eventuality that this man would go on to break his own world record yet again on the grandest stage. It was reminiscent of how he broke the world record in the 2024 Paris Olympics, where he had gathered everyone’s attention to spring up and win the gold.
The Greek pole vaulter Emmanouil Karalis finished second with a respectable leap of 6 meters, having run out of attempts to clear 6.10m and 6.15m, having already cemented himself fourth in the list of all-time highest vaults. After the exhaustion of his attempts and securing himself a silver in the competition, he became an utter encourager for Duplantis to set the record again. Upon leaping to the skies and breaking the record, the Swede was received with celebrations from his competitors, who picked him up and started jumping around in elation.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist has set the bar so high that only he seems to be reaching it, wherein he has been so clear of anyone in contention. The incentive for the same has also not been meager, with the World Athletics offering a $100000 bonus for the world record and $70000 for the gold medalist position.
The atmosphere perfectly played into Duplantis’ near-supernatural and record-breaking vault in his third and final attempt to conclude day 3 of the championship in a cinematic fashion.