Swedish athlete Mondo Duplantis has made history once again by breaking the men’s pole vault world record for the eighth time. He achieved this feat at a Diamond League meet in Xiamen, China, where he cleared an impressive 6.24 meters (20 feet, 5 inches). Duplantis is known for consistently raising the bar by the minimum one centimeter for all of his world records dating back to February 2020. With each new record, he earns bonus money.
Duplantis’ next challenge is to clear the 6.25-meter mark, which could potentially make him the first man to clear 20 feet, 6 inches. In other events at the same meet, Olympic gold medalist Jasmine Camacho-Quinn from Puerto Rico won the 100m hurdles in 12.45 seconds, outperforming Bahamian Devynne Charlton by four hundredths of a second. Other notable competitors in the race included reigning world champion Danielle Williams from Jamaica and world record holder Tobi Amusan from Nigeria.
Australian Torrie Lewis claimed victory in the 200m race with a time of 22.96 seconds, narrowly beating world 100m champion Sha’Carri Richardson. Following Richardson were a group of American runners who are expected to be strong contenders in the 200m races at the upcoming Olympic Trials in June. In the field events, Olympic gold medalist Gong Lijiao of China triumphed in the women’s shot put with a throw of 19.72 meters, besting American Chase Jackson, the two-time reigning world champion.
American Shelby McEwen emerged victorious in the men’s high jump over co-Olympic gold medalist Mutaz Barshim from Qatar by clearing 2.27 meters. McEwen placed seventh at the 2023 World Championships