Duplantis was challenged by the world's third-best Emmanouil Karalis, Greece, who for a long time jumped evenly with the Swedish-American. In the end, Karalis exhausted himself on his only remaining attempt at 6.15.
With this, "Mondo" secured his third consecutive gold on the indoor World Championship and his eleventh championship gold as a senior.
Tough competition, Karalis jumped really well and pushed me like crazy, he says in TV4.
I didn't feel at my best today, so it took quite a lot to jump as high as I did. But I'm happy to take home the gold.
"Was a bit tired"
The tough competition meant that he didn't attempt to break his own world record, 6.27, set in France three weeks ago.
I was a bit tired. I jumped a lot and there wasn't much energy left. Tough competition where the most important thing was to take home the gold.
He chooses, however, to see the tough competition as something positive.
It's just fun and good for pole vaulting. We (he and Karalis) pushed each other, and it can lead to great competitions in the future.
Rare failure
Duplantis entered the championship in Nanjing at 5.70. Then he skipped 5.80 but jumped 5.90, which he cleared easily.
Then he and the Greek world number two went head-to-head until 6.10, when "Mondo" first failed, but cleared on the second attempt. Karalis, on the other hand, failed twice but chose to save himself for a final attempt at 6.15 – which he didn't clear.
American Sam Kendricks took the silver with 5.90.
"Good weekend"
Last time Duplantis didn't win a championship he participated in was at the 2019 World Championship in Doha, when he finished second. Since then, he has dominated pole vaulting – with eleven world records.
But it's not just on the track that things are going well for the Swedish-American right now. His recently released song "Bop" is approaching one million streams on Spotify.
Very big. One million listeners and then gold here. We'll see how we can celebrate this, maybe there's something fun here in Nanjing, says the 25-year-old.
The World Championship gold marked the end of Duplantis' indoor season. This year's big goal is the outdoor World Championship in Tokyo in September.
Born: November 10, 1999, in Lafayette, Louisiana, USA.
Event: Pole vault.
Club: Upsala IF Friidrott.
Family: Father Greg, mother Helena who both coach him. Two older brothers and a younger sister.
Selection of merits: Olympic Games gold 2024, 2020, World Championship gold 2022, 2023, World Championship gold (indoor) 2022, 2024, 2025, European Championship gold 2018, 2022, 2024. Set a world record – for the eleventh time – in Clermont-Ferrand, France, when he cleared 6.27 meters three weeks ago.
