"This competition is very important to me. I love this - I love this city, I love this audience, so it was very important for me to be able to jump today," Duplantis said in SVT's broadcast.
Before the competition, French L'Équipe reported that Armand Duplantis had suffered from food poisoning, and it was unclear whether the 26-year-old would be able to compete at the All Star Perche pole vault gala in France.
A sleepy morning
But he did compete - and there were no signs of illness when Duplantis entered the second height, 5.70 meters, clearing it on his first attempt.
The day before yesterday I had a bad night where I threw up, so sorry for too much information. But I'm grateful that I got to sleep in and skip the media so I could jump. I'm a little scared about how I'll feel tomorrow but I don't care, I just wanted to jump here, Duplantis said.
The Swedish-American world star cleared 5.80 and 5.90 with ease, then rested again at 6.00.
Victory and world best of the year
When the bar was raised to 6.06 meters, there were three men left - Australian Kurtis Marschall, Greek Emmanouil Karalis, and Duplantis.
There were no difficulties for "Mondo", who once again cleared on his first attempt.
Marschall had to settle for 6.00 meters — the first time he had cleared that height in his career — while Karalis, the fourth-best performer of all time, failed to clear 6.06. The victory thus went to Duplantis, who also set a world best with the jump.
“Nice to have a world record bonus”
Duplantis also attempted the world record of 6.31 meters, but failed to raise the record, which remains at 6.30 after three failed attempts. He has broken the world record twice before on the track in Clermont-Ferrand, most recently last year.
In March, his own competition, the Mondo Classic, awaits.
I hope to get the world record early. I'm getting married this year so it would be nice to have a world-record bonus. I'm only half kidding. But trying for the world record, trying to get 6.31, would be great.
