Mondo Duplantis Clears 6.07m In Epic Battle With Sam Kendricks

Mondo Duplantis Clears 6.07m In Epic Battle With Sam Kendricks

Mondo Duplantis and Sam Kendricks put on a pole vault show on Wednesday in Lausanne.

Sep 2, 2020 by Lincoln Shryack
Mondo Duplantis Clears 6.07m In Epic Battle With Sam Kendricks

Wednesday’s Lausanne Diamond League was a pole vault-only competition in the Swiss streets, but a stellar battle between superstars Mondo Duplantis and Sam Kendricks made up for the scarcity of disciplines.

The 20-year-old Duplantis, undefeated across 11 competitions in 2020 entering tonight, made it 12 in Switzerland as he cleared 6.07m in his first attempt. That stands as the highest outdoor performance since Sergy Bubka set the outdoor world record of 6.14m in 1994. 

Kendricks, the 2019 world champion, pushed the Swede all the way to 6.02m, as the American sailed over that height in his first attempt as well. Although it was only good enough for second tonight, the mark is Kendricks second-best clearance ever behind the 6.06m U.S. record from 2019. (According to LetsRun’s Jonathan Gault, 6.02m is the best runner-up jump in pole vault history.)

Duplantis had the competition won when Kendricks failed thrice at 6.07m, but he still gave the 6.15m world record a crack as darkness made subsequent tries impossible. He had to bail on that attempt, but it was yet again a marvelous event for the man who set the indoor world record not once but twice this past winter.