There may just have been a change of guard in both the men’s Pole vault and Long Jump events, going by what was witnessed in Stockholm, as the duo of Armand Duplantis and Juan Miguel Echevarria, upstaged their more accomplished rivals to win their respective events.
Although Duplantis couldn’t clear 5.96m in his last vault, which would have been a Meeting Record (MR) and World U20 Record, his clearance at 5.91m was enough for him to earn his first Diamond League win.
Duplantis was spurred on by the home crowd all through the duel between himself and Sam Kendricks. In the end, it was the Swedish man that ensured that Kendricks’ winning streak came to an end.
On Echevarria’s part, the Cuban not only leaped to a distance of 8.83m in the last round to win the men’s Long Jump, he also made sure he defeated Luvo Manyonga for the second time this season.
Although the jump was wind-aided (+2.1m/s), it was the farthest by any Long jumper since 1994. It also saw him prevail over Jeff Henderson (8.39m) who was 2nd, and Manyonga (8.25m) who placed 3rd.
After his poor showing in Oslo, Jamaican Fedrick Dacres, with his right knee heavily strapped, set a WL and NR of 69.67m to secure the win in the men’s Discus throw, ahead of Andrius Gudzius whose PB of 69.59m was only good enough for 2nd place.
In the women’s High Jump, Mariya Lasitskene extended her winning streak with a 2.00m clearance. Also, Mirela Demireva joined the 2m club and finished 2nd, despite failing to clear earlier heights.
Finally, Lorraine Ugen and Malaika Mihambo went out to 6.85m in the women’s Long Jump. However, Ugen took the win, thanks to a superior second best jump, to take the lead on the Diamond League standings.
