Armand Duplantis and Sam Kendricks were both in blazing form at the Lausanne Diamond League Street Pole Vault event, making history as the first athletes to both go over 6.02m in the same Pole Vault competition.
While Kendricks the World Champion entered at 5.32m, Duplantis waited till the bar was raised to 5.62m before making his first height, giving him the vantage point as Kendricks missed his first attempt at that same height.
With the rest of the field gradually dropping off, Duplantis passed at the next two heights while Kendricks went on to clear them (5.72m and 5.77m), before he re-entering at 5.82m.
Both athletes then went on to clear the next four bars at their first times of asking, Kendricks going up first to a Meeting Record (MR) and World Lead (WL) of 6.02m to be equalled by Armand Duplantis.
As the lights dimmed at 6.07m, Kendricks missed his first try while Duplantis lightly brushed the bar but it managed to stay up – a big outdoor PB, MR, National Record (NR) and Diamond League Record (DLR) for the Swedish athlete.
The onlookers turned on their flashlights for Kendricks, but he missed his remaining attempts at 6.07m. Duplantis took the bar up to 6.15m, a would-be outdoor World Record but missed his first attempt and decided to call it a day due to the bad lighting.
In a different affair behind them, Olympic Champion Thiago Braz cleared a Season’s Best (SB) of 5.72m, edging Renaud Lavillenie who back from breaking his thumb, cleared an SB of 5.72m.
In the women’s event, Angelica Bengtsson gained an edge over the field as she topped an SB of 4.72m for the win ahead of Holly Bradshaw who got over 4.64m.
Homegirl, Angelica Moser placed 3rd with a PB, also at 4.64m, edging out Michaela Meijer who also cleared the same height.
Bengtsson the winner took very good attempts at a would-be Swedish Record of 4.84m, having lost it to Meijer few months ago by a cm but couldn’t get a grasp on the height.
