Armand Duplantis came close to breaking his world record at the All-Star Perche in Clermont-Ferrand, a World Athletics Indoor Tour Silver meeting, for the second year in succession, on Thursday (22) evening.
In front of a capacity crowd, the Swedish superstar was back at his very best with a first-time clearance at 6.02m - his first six metre-plus clearance in 2024 after victories in Astana (5.80m) and Uppsala (5.92m) - before raising the bar to a world record height of 6.24m.
His second attempt was by far the closest of the three and suggests Duplantis is in form to re-revise his world record at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow from 1-3 March, one of three titles he will be defending in 2024.
Duplantis broke the world record for the second time in Glasgow in 2020 when he cleared 6.17m in the Emirates Arena.
But the athlete who received the biggest cheer of the evening was home vaulter Thibaut Collet who cleared an outright lifetime best of 5.92m to finish second on countback ahead of former two-time world champion Sam Kendricks.
In an equally captivating women’s competition, Canada’s Alysha Newman cleared a national record of 4.83m on her first attempt to win on countback from Bridget Williams from the United States.
2021 European indoor champion Angelica Moser from Switzerland finished third with a season’s best of 4.73m, the third highest vault of her career.