Armand Duplantis won pole vault gold at Golden Spike Ostrava with a new meeting record

Just nine days after breaking his own world record in the pole vault, Armand Duplantis broke the meeting record of 6.13m at the Golden Spike in Ostrava.

While the Swedish world and Olympic champion was busy chasing heights in his own division, three competition records were broken on the track thanks to the middle-distance duo of Phanuel Koech and Prudence Sekgodiso, as well as Bahraini sprinter Salwa Eid Naser.

Armand Duplantis, competing in his third competition in 12 days, showed a brief sign of fatigue when he cleared the bar on his first attempt from his starting height of 5.62m. However, he cleared safely on his second attempt, then cleared 5.82m for the first time. After missing 5.92m – a height that Emmanouil Karalis had cleared for the first time – Armand Duplantis regained the lead with a first jump of 5.97m.

Emmanouil Karalis cleared the bar and went straight to 6.02m, but missed all three attempts. Armand Duplantis, however, cleared it on his first attempt and then did the same at 6.13m – a one centimetre improvement on the meeting record he set two years ago. The Swede attacked the world record again, setting the bar at 6.29m, but fatigue did not allow him to clear it.

“I felt good with the jumps, considering I felt like I was operating on less than a full tank”, said Armand Duplantis, who cleared 6.15m in Oslo 12 days ago and then set a world record of 6.28m in Stockholm three days later.

Kenyan teenager Phanuel Koech showed that his recent under-20 1,500m world record of 3:27.72 min, set four days ago in Paris in only his second race over the distance, was no fluke. The 18-year-old held off a strong field in Ostrava to win in a meeting record of 3:29.05 min, followed by Isaac Nader of Portugal (3:29.37 min), world indoor 800m champion Josh Hoey (3:29.75 min) and Australian teenager Cameron Myers, whose time of 3:29.80 min is an under-20 Oceania record.

Prudence Sekgodiso was equally impressive in the women’s 800m. The world indoor champion pulled away in the final metres to win in 1:57.16 min ahead of Oratile Nowe of Botswana, who set a national record of 1:57.49 min for second place.

One of the oldest records in the event – ​​Tať’ana Kocembova’s 400m time of 49.67 sec, set in 1983 – was finally broken thanks to 2019 world champion Salwa Eid Naser. The Bahraini sprinter won in 49.15 sec ahead of American Lynna Irby-Jackson (49.82 sec) and world indoor record holder Femke Bol (49.98 sec).