Duplantis Soars 6.21m in Lausanne as Karalis Pushes the World Record Holder to the Brink
The Swede beat his own Athletissima meeting record and took two shots at a world record after Emmanouil Karalis matched him bar for bar deep into the Lausanne night.
Pole vault delivered the moment of the Diamond League season on Thursday night in Lausanne, and for once it wasn't a one-man show. Armand "Mondo" Duplantis cleared 6.21m at Athletissima — a meeting record, and a height only he has ever bettered — but the story was the duel that dragged him there.
A real fight at the top
Emmanouil Karalis of Greece matched Duplantis jump for jump deep into the competition at the Stade Olympique de la Pontaise. Both men were perfect through 6.01m and both passed at 6.11m, according to World Athletics' report. Karalis missed his first try at 6.16m, watched Duplantis sail over it first time, then answered on his second attempt — the second-best clearance of his career, behind only the 6.17m that puts him second on the all-time list.
Duplantis responded the way he usually does: a first-attempt clearance at 6.21m, improving the meeting record of 6.15m he set in 2024. With the win secure, he had the bar raised to 6.32m — one centimetre above the world record of 6.31m he set in Uppsala in March — and came up short on two attempts before calling it a night.
"That's competition, that's what we live for," Duplantis said afterward. "I love to compete, I love competing against Manolo."
Why it matters
For years the only drama in a Duplantis competition began after everyone else had gone home. Karalis has changed that. The Greek is now clearing heights that no one other than Duplantis has ever managed, and he is forcing the world record holder to produce record-adjacent jumps just to win meetings. Behind the front two, Kurtis Marschall, Sondre Guttormsen and Chris Nilsen all cleared 5.91m — a measure of how deep the event has become on the road to LA28.
The world record attempt failed. The sense that it will need defending, for the first time in Duplantis's career, did not.