Duplantis sets new pole vault world record of 6.29m

Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis bettered his pole vault world record by a centimetre on Tuesday, clearing 6.29 metres at the athletics meet in Budapest.

Sweden’s Duplantis broke the world record for the 13th time as he soared over the bar at the second attempt to improve on his 6.28m from Stockholm in June. 

It was the 25-year-old’s third record of 2025 having also cleared 6.27m in Clermont-Ferrand in February.

Duplantis notched up his 33rd competition victory, clearing 6.11m on his first attempt to finish ahead of Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis (6.02m) and Australia’s Kurtis Marschall (5.83m). 

On his second attempt at 6.29m, Duplantis touched the bar with one leg and his stomach, but it held, and the jump was validated. 

Since Ukrainian Sergey Bubka became the first athlete to clear 6 metres on July 13, 1985 in Paris, the world record has been broken 26 times, including 12 times by Bubka, 13 times by Duplantis and once by Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie.

The US-born Duplantis first broke the world record in 2020 with 6.17m.

Duplantis is favourite for a third consecutive outdoor world title in a month’s time in Tokyo.

On the track Jamaican sprinter Bryan Levell laid down a marker for those championships by posting the third quickest time this year to win the men’s 200m. 

The 21-year-old, who reached the semi-finals at last year’s Olympics, headed into the race with a season’s best of 20.10.

He pulled away from the field in the home straight to win in 19.69 to clock the third best time of the year behind the Americans Noah Lyles (19.63sec) and Kenneth Bednarek (19.67sec). 

Levell smashed Erriyon Knighton’s meeting record by 0.19sec leaving South African veteran Wayde van Niekerk a distant runner-up in 20.07.

Olympic bronze medallist Muzala Samukonga held off Jereem Richards and Khaleb McRae to win the men’s 400m in a season’s best of 44.11 while Laban Kipkorir Chepkwony, who finished fourth at Kenya’s World Trials last month, won the men’s 800m in a personal best of 1min 42.96sec, breaking David Rudisha’s meeting record from 2016.

Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce only managed a fourth-placed finish in the women’s 100m as Ivorian sprinter Marie-Josee Ta Lou Smith held off Tina Clayton and world 200m champion Shericka Jackson.