Armand Duplantis defied the elements to clear 6.00m on home soil at the Folksam Grand Prix in Karlstad, Sweden, a World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meeting, on Tuesday (22).
The rest of the pole vault field could go no higher than 5.50m in the cold and wet conditions but Duplantis showed he was a man for all seasons, come rain or shine, when he went straight over 5.70m on his first attempt and after watching his last remaining rival, Poland’s 2017 world champion Piotr Lisek, depart the world record holder had the bar raised to 6.00m.
On his second attempt, despite touching the bar, he cleared the height for his 18th competition at six metres or better and then decided to call it a day.
“These are by far the worst conditions I've ever jumped six metres in,” reflected Duplantis. “I feel really strong on the runway, mentally, and today really showed that. We’re going to see something special very soon.”
“t's hard to rank but it's one of the more impressive things I've done, among my best achievements. I’m very proud of this, it was not easy,” he added, speaking to local Swedish media.
Another Swede to prosper despite the conditions was 2019 discus world champion Daniel Stahl who, after 67.22m in the first round, reached 67.64m with his third attempt to win by more than four metres.
Fellow Swede Simon Pettersson was second with 63.61m while his near namesake and compatriot Wictor Petersson took the honours in the shot put with a best of 20.63m
Fanny Roos followed up her two national record-breaking competitions in the last 10 days and delivered a Swedish shot double with an effort of18.75m in the second round.
Denmark’s recently minted national record holder Kojo Musah, who ran 10.17 a week ago, won the 100 m in 10.25 (+1.3). Ireland´s Mark English came home first in the 800 m in 1:46.50 and beat Swedish record holder Andreas Kramer, who was second with 1:47.03, while Sweden’s 2014 European 5000m champion Meraf Bahta was victorious in the 1500m in 4:11.86.
Full results here.