Pole vaulter Duplantis breaks Sergey Bubka's outdoor world record

Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis broke Sergey Bubka's 26year-old outdoor world record yesterday.

Duplantis cleared 6 meters, 15 centimeters (20 feet, 2 inches) at the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea meet in Rome with his second attempt, besting Bubka's mark of 6.14 meters (20 feet, 1 1/2 inches) set in Sestriere in July 1994.

Nicknamed "Mondo," Duplantis already holds the indoor world record of 6.18 meters (20 feet, 3 1/4 inches) set in Glasgow in February — but Bubka's classic outdoor mark was viewed by many as the ultimate test.

"World record — finally! It is so cool," Duplantis said. "I wanted to get over these 6.15 so badly. Everybody kept talking about it, it was a big chip on my shoulder ... When I did it, it was more relief than joy."

The 20-year-old Duplantis, who was born and raised in the United States, came agonizingly close on his first attempt before clearing the bar on his second.

Duplantis was a child prodigy who broke age-group records on his way to joining the pole vaulting elite. He chose to compete internationally for Sweden, his mother's home country. He won the silver medal at last year's world championships.

World champion Karsten Warholm again narrowly missed out on Kevin Young's 28-year-old world record in the men's 400 hurdles but the Norwegian keeps getting close. Warholm ran a meet record 47.07 seconds, less than three-tenths of a second off Young's record of 46.78 from the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.