After an uncharacteristic defeat in the Lausanne Diamond League on Thursday (26), normal service was resumed for Armand Duplantis in the Paris Diamond League on Saturday (28) afternoon when he soared over 6.01m.
Duplantis was at his most economical at the Charlety Stadium, clearing five of his six heights on his first attempt. The only blip for the Olympic champion came at 5.91m when he briefly ceded the lead to Ernest Obiena from the Philippines but Duplantis atoned for his only failure of the competition at 5.91m with first-time clearances at 5.96m and 6.01m.
“I felt good. I felt like it was really important for me to come back and try to get into the victory mode again, to try to get over six metres, especially after the competition in Lausanne,” said Duplantis who kept a rapt audience on the back straight enthralled with three attempts at a world record height of 6.19m.
“The 6.19m - it is a very high bar. You have to have a perfect jump there. I feel like I am jumping really good, I felt like I will have some close attempts right now. But it has to be perfect. It is not that I am scared but it is that I have a lot of respect for the height because I know how hard it is.”
Five-time European discus champion Sandra Perkovic notched up the 44th Diamond League victory of her esteemed career.
The Croatian produced the longest throw of the competition in the second round with 66.08m before winning the winner-takes-all Final Three format with 65.68m to take the scalps of reigning world champion Yaime Perez from Cuba (65.31m) and reigning Olympic champion Valarie Allmann from the United States (64.51m).
“I can say it was a perfect afternoon for me. I like this meeting so much and it's my fourth victory here,” said Perkovic, who had a point to prove after just missing out on the medals in Tokyo where she finished fourth.
“After Tokyo, I still had a strong motivation. I will now compete in Brussels where we will throw not in the stadium but in a park. With the new formula - a final for three girls to decide the victory - I knew I had to keep something for the last attempt. But I was ready for that. I'm a competitor. I throw each attempt as if it would be the last one,” she said.
From a European standpoint, the standout performance on the track came from European indoor 60m hurdles champion Nadine Visser from the Netherlands in the 100m hurdles.
After injury affected the early part of her outdoor season, Visser came into form with a second place finish in a national record of 12.58 behind Jamaica’s Danielle Williams in 12.50.
“I am getting excited because there are a few big races to come. It feels like my shape is culminating. I was injured and could not show my best in Tokyo; I was disappointed because I was thinking about getting a medal there,” she said.
Full results here.
A victory and a lifetime best for Stahl at the Swedish Championships
Olympic champion Daniel Stahl highlighted the Swedish Championships in Boras with victory in the discus on Saturday (28) with 67.04m over training partner and Olympic silver medallist Simon Pettersson with 62.91m.
Stahl also finished second in the shot put with a lifetime best of 19.47m behind Wictor Pettersson’s 19.76m although the discus specialist had a marginal foul which would have challenged Pettersson for the overall win.
European indoor bronze medallist Khaddi Sagnia led the long jump qualifying with an equal lifetime best of 6.93m. And while she couldn’t quite match that form in the final, Sagnia still prevailed with 6.81m into a 0.9 m/s headwind.
Former European champion Meraf Bahta scooped a 1500/5000m double in 4:30.55/15:58.18 and former 800m specialist Andreas Almgren stepped up in distance to win the 5000m on his debut in 14:01.91 with a sub-54 second last lap.
At the Finnish Championships in Tampere, Wilma Murto cleared a national pole vault record of 4.72m on her first attempt before three attempts at ameliorating her record to 4.80m.
Oliver Helander won a high quality javelin competition with a season’s best of 86.13m ahead of Lassi Etelatalo (83.05m) and Toni Kuusela (82.15m) and Krista Tervo defeated European and world U20 champion and record-holder Silja Kosonen in the hammer, 70.29m to 68.30m.