A thigh injury forced Armand Duplantis to withdraw from the Diamond League final in Brussels. But at the Ultimate Championship he took to the start and immediately showed who is the master of the pole vault.
"It feels so good and I'm overjoyed. I feel maybe happier than ever," he tells SVT.
There was another duel between Emmanouil Karalis and Armand Duplantis. The Greek had problems at 6.05 and cleared it only on his last attempt, a height Duplantis cleared on his first.
But Karalis came back and put real pressure on Duplantis when he needed only one attempt to sail over 6.15.
The Swede, however, was unfazed and also cleared 6.15 on his first attempt. The bar was raised to Karalis' personal best of 6.20 and while the Greek failed on his first attempt, Duplantis cleared it with room to spare. That jump decided the competition as Karalis never came close to clearing 6.25.
With that, Duplantis secured the winnings of $150,000, equivalent to just over 1.5 million kronor.
"I'm so happy that I was able to perform again. This was important for me, to take another title," he says.
But he wasn't satisfied with "just" finishing first in the competition and ordered the bar to be raised to the world record height of 6.32. However, despite three good attempts, no new world record was achieved.
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