Armand Duplantis cruises to win in Suzhou Diamond League
Armand Duplantis missed out on another pole vault world record but made a strong statement ahead of this year’s Olympic Games by easing to victory in the second Diamond League event of the season on Saturday.
The 24-year-old Olympic champion had broken his own world record with a stellar effort of 6.24 metres at the Xiamen season opener last week and wrapped up another victory in China with his best of 6.00m too good for the rest of the pack.
With the bar raised to 6.25m, Duplantis was primed to break the mark for a ninth time but he was unable to clear the height in his three attempts, coming agonisingly close in his final chance to leave some fans disappointed.
“I felt great today, really good. To jump 6.00m today and complete a successful tour, I have a lot of good takeaways,” Duplantis said.
“I felt a little bit flat today, but still really good. I just feel conditions have to be perfect for me to jump a world record and I wasn’t quite feeling it off the runway tonight.
“Now I go back home and train for a few weeks until my next competition in Ostrava.”
Ben Broeders of Belgium and Sam Kendricks of the United States managed vaults of 5.82m behind the winner.
Akani Simbine powered to victory in the men’s 100m race in the Shanghai leg of the premier track and field series which is being held in the neighbouring city of Suzhou this year due to stadium renovation.
The South African made a good start and crossed the finish line in 10.01 seconds to deny reigning Diamond League champion Christian Coleman of the United States back-to-back victories this season. Coleman’s pace dropped towards the end and he settled for silver with a time of 10.04 seconds, ahead of compatriot Fred Kerley who clocked 10.11 seconds for