by The competition at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo was almost two and a half hours old when it was finally serious.
The special “claw shoes”, an innovation of Puma with a hanging spike that was hanging from the toe, and Mondo Duplantis sailed comfortably over six meters.
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Since the rest of the field dealt with a mixture of clarifications and fouls in the previous hours, only the Greek athletes Emmanouil Karalis immediately left with a possible opportunity to prevent Duplantis from winning another world whey.
Against the most dominant athletes in world sports, this would always be a theoretical point, and attention would soon turn to where it always does. To order another world record?
Duplantis was already 13 years old and, after three other world records in 2025, rose to the standard to one centimeter on a centimeter-ergy bubka style after three other world records.
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The first man over 6.30 m was therefore the goal, but first came the relatively important business to climb an eighth global crown in a row.
Karalis with a personal best of 6.08 m made the brave call to move the yardstick to 6.10 m in order to exert the pressure on Duplantis, and only made it when he failed.
Of course, Duplantis sailed over properly and with Karalis we also failed with bold attempts both at 6.15 m and 6.20 m, we were actually only left to determine whether further history would be written.
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There would be another turn. After Duplantis had swiveled with his usual rod throughout the competition, he released a brand new that he had saved especially for Tokyo. “Just a little bit stiffer,” he said before the competition and was just a millimeter before the first attempt.
Since the track program for the night ended and the leaked Karalis now cooled the duplanis between jumps with a portable fan, the focus of all 65,000 people in the Japan National Stadium was on the 25-year-old Sweden.
Try two were closer. Duplantis touched the bar and it seemed likely to stay at the moment, but the pasture contact with his knee would simply prove too much.
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The DJ put on ABBA in the five minutes before the third and last attempt, whereby Duplantis orchestrated the crescendo of noise. Could he really deliver such a perfect finish?
Of course he could. After Duplantis the first man to solve 6.20 m in 2022, he also became the first over 6.30 m and celebrated joyfully with his equally pleased competitors, a round of the route and a longer kiss with Swedish model girlfriend Desiré Inland.
Another 100,000 US dollars (£ 74,000) world record bonus are also integrated. “It is the biggest dream that I have ever come true for me,” said Duplantis. It also added up to one of the big moments in the entire history of the World Championships.
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The “claw” surrounded a lot and it was interesting that the runner -up, also an athlete sponsored by Puma, had chosen a more conventional choice of shoe.
Duplantis wore a version of this shoe from Puma, whose design on one of Karsten Warholm, the 400 meter
Duplantis is also used by Karsten Warholm in the 400 meters of hurdles and says that the additional traction of the claw helps him to achieve his impressive top speed in the 20 steps faster, which he approaches from a standing start to something that approaches 40 km / h.
“I can really feel the advantage from the start of running,” said Duplantis, a 10.37 seconds 100 -m runner with the flexibility of a gymnast, whose pole vault -Mantra corresponds to this “speed”.
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He does not use the “claw” for every jump because sometimes he catches his hands on the spike when he comes down. “So if you ever see that it has blood on me, that’s why it is,” said Duplantis, who has increased a plastic cover with Puma to reduce the risk of abrasions since then.
Romain Girard, Puma’s shoe designer, says that in her latest iteration, the claw is actually “a kind of small condom … a shell of protective rubber”.
“The basis of the conversation is that you [Warholm and his coach Leif Olav Alnes] If they had a larger lever – and could create this lever from a muscle part – they would run faster, “said Girard.” It is not the easiest to handle, but theoretically there should be this additional speed. And that happened. “
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In Duplantis, of course, the innovators also have a highest athlete who likes nothing more than experimenting with opportunities. “Pole Vault is a funky little strange movement that is super stupid stuff,” said Duplantis. “I love it so much. I just want to improve and try to get ahead in every respect. As far as the baking section is concerned, it is [the claw] is huge.
“Whenever I think I have the chance to break world records. I bring out the claw. That’s why I don’t do it every time you come out, you know that it is business time.”
It was indeed and just like his Golden World Record at the Olympic Games in Paris last summer, the biggest showman of the sport delivered.
