Armand Duplantis sets new world record in pole vault

The 20-year-old Armand "Mondo" Duplantis of Sweden cleared 6.17 meters at the Orlen Copernicus Cup in Torun, Poland, on Saturday to become a world-record holder in the pole vault.

The event in Torun was the fourth stage of the World Athletics Indoor Tour. Duplantis needed only six jumps to surpass the previous world record (6.16 meters) set by the French legend Renauld Lavillenie in 2014.

Duplantis did not have problems with clearing 5.72, 5.92 and 6.01 meters. In his first effort at 6.17 meters, he brushed the bar to knock it down but in the second jump, he made the spectacular thing which seemed impossible. Just after clearing 6.17 meters the Swede couldn't believe he was able to break the world record.

"It's something that I wanted since I was three-years-old. It doesn't feel like it's really happening right now. It kind of feels fake, this whole thing, like I didn't actually break the world record like there's a catch to it or something", Duplantis said according to World Athletics.

"After that first attempt, I thought, 'yeah, I just need two more attempts at this and I got it'. I was pretty confident that I had it", added the winner.

In Torun, the Spaniard Igancio Fontes turned out to be the winner in the men's 1500 meters while Colins Kipruto from Kenya stood on the highest podium on 800 meters followed by the Poles Adam Kszczot and Marcin Lewandowski.

The Ukrainian Maryna Bekh-Romanczuk took the first place in the women's long jump with a result of 6.96 meters. In women's competition at 1500 meters, Gudaf Tsegay from Ethiopia won the gold medal to beat her compatriot Lemlem Hailu.