The 2024 Wanda Diamond League season kicked off in Xiamen with a remarkable performance from Mondo Duplantis. The 24-year-old from Sweden, who is the Olympic and world champion, set a new world record in the pole vault at 6.24m. He cleared the bar on his first attempt, surpassing the record he had set just a few months prior in Eugene during the 2023 Wanda Diamond League final.
Duplantis expressed his excitement about competing in China for the first time and highlighted that he was looking forward to starting his season strong. He had recently won the world indoor title in Glasgow with a 6.10m clearance. With more than three months to go before he defends his Olympic title in Paris, Duplantis’s early season success bodes well for his upcoming competitions.
Having previously opened his outdoor season with a six-meter clearance only once before, Duplantis achieved a 6.02m leap at the Doha Diamond League meeting in 2022. This latest performance marks the eighth world record of his career, with his first record of 6.17m being set in Torun in 2020. As always, the record-setting jump is subject to the usual ratification procedure.