Charlton creates record
DEVYNNE Charlton blazed to a world record in the women’s 60-metres hurdles while pole vaulter Armand Duplantis pulled a remarkable performance out of what had been an offnight to win gold at the world indoor athletics championships yesterday.
Charlton, a 28-year-old from the Bahamas, clocked 7.65 seconds to shave two-hundredths of a second off the previous record she had shared with American Tia Jones.
“This means a whole lot because I have set myself goals,” said Charlton, who raced with bright pink hair. “I have not changed my technique much -- just a few tweaks -- but I have been working hard off the track, making sure my mental health is good and working with a sports psychologist. Just taking care of myself.”
The 24-year-old Duplantis, an Olympic and two-time world outdoor champion, cleared 6.05 metres to add a second world indoor title to his bulging resume.
“It took a lot from me today, actually more than I would have liked,” Duplantis said.
“Even going in as a big favourite, pole vaulting is very difficult, even at the heights that I should be making.”
Some uncharacteristic misses at lower heights had the world-record holder puffing his cheeks in frustration.
“I had my back against the wall quite a few times but I was able to come away and make those third attempts,” Duplantis said.
He finally cleared 6.05 on his third vault, then missed at three world-record attempts of 6.24.
American Sam Kendricks took silver with a height of 5.90, while Emmanouil Karalis of Greece won bronze with 5.85.
Femke Bol captured her second title of the meet in anchoring the Dutch women to victory in the 4x400m relay. The 24-year-old had crushed her own world indoor 400m record en route to gold the previous evening. Simon Ehammer of Switzerland won the men’s heptathlon to improve on his silver in 2022, doing just enough in the 1,000 metres — the heptathlon’s last event — to hold off Norway’s Sander Skotheim by 11 points.
Tsige Duguma of Ethiopia pulled away from home favourite Jemma Reekie over the final 50 metres to win the women’s 800 in 2:01.90.