Armand “Mondo” Duplantis was the headline act as a trio of modern-day track and field greats starred on an electrifying night of action at the World Athletic Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China, on Saturday.
Duplantis was pushed all the way by Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis in a battle royale before bagging a third world indoor pole vault gold with a best of 6.15m.
“We put on a good show for everybody,” said Duplantis. “It’s great to be pushed and I’m happy for Manolo [Karalis]. I had to grind for it tonight.”
Photo: AFP
“It’s good for me especially, and it’s just great competition. It’s just such a higher level than what pole vault’s ever been, so it’s good. You just have to want it,” he said.
It was a truly pulsating competition, echoed in the men’s 3,000m won by a hair’s breadth by Norway’s multi-medaled Jakob Ingebrigtsen, incredibly for his first world indoor title.
“My competitors study me, but you have to race many times to be able to respond in all scenarios,” said Ingebrigtsen, who pipped Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi at the line in a dramatic, fast-finishing race.
“I’ve done a lot of racing, but I’m not perfect. It’s all about learning. The more you race, the more you learn, so you can make the right decisions at the right point to increase the possibility of winning,” he said. “I don’t enjoy the 1,500m warm-up, but the racing is a lot of fun, and that’s what I’m going to do tomorrow — have a lot of fun.”
The third of the stellar trio on show was Grant Holloway, the US athlete claiming an unprecedented third successive 60m hurdles victory that extended his indoor win streak to 94 races dating back a remarkable 11 years to when he was 16 years old.
“This one was a little bit different,” Holloway said. “I didn’t have two great rounds and had to rely on my experience to get me through the final, but I knew what I had to do, I knew what I was missing.”
Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji produced a savage dip to regain the 60m crown she last won in Belgrade in 2022, clocking 7.04 seconds to see off Italy’s European champion Zaynab Dosso by two-hundredths of a second.
“Every win is always good for the confidence,” the Swiss racer said. “It shows me that we’re doing a lot of things right, because not every year is the same. You can’t just take one recipe and do it every year.”
“You always have to adapt on how you feel, so I’m really happy to see that my coach can feel what I need, and we can do what’s optimal for me,” she said.
Ethiopia’s Freweyni Hailu won the women’s 3,000m in 8:37.21, the US’ Shelby Houlihan — just two months after returning from a four-year doping ban — edging Austrian Jessica Hull for silver by two-hundredths.
There was a Cuban one-two in the women’s triple jump, Leyanis Perez Hernandez taking gold with a first-effort 14.93m ahead of Liadagmis Povea and Spain’s Ana Peleteiro-Compaore.
Amber Anning ensured a first British gold in the women’s 400m by edging the US’ Alexis Holmes by three-hundredths for the win in 50.60sec, Norway’s Henriette Jaeger taking bronze.
The US men made up for Holmes’ silver by sweeping the men’s 400m, Christopher Bailey winning in 45.08sec ahead of Brian Faust and Jacory Patterson.
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Armand Duplantis will be among the reigning Olympic champions adding star power to the world indoor championships this weekend when the Chinese city of Nanjing hosts the first major global athletics meet since the Paris Games last year. The three-day event was originally slated for 2020 and faced multiple postponements due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Nanjing’s Sports Training Center would finally welcome more than 570 athletes for the start of the showpiece today. One of the main attractions would be pole vaulter “Mondo” Duplantis, who soared 6.27m to break the world record for a staggering 11th time in Clermont-Ferrand last
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