TOKYO -- Mondo Duplantis stood confidently at the top of his mark, a steely look of determination buried deep in his eyes ahead of what inevitably felt like his latest jaw-dropping athletic feat. The star Swede's third consecutive world championship crown was already sewn up, but this was a jump for pride. This was another jump for history. This is just what Mondo does.
With both his 17-foot pole and the near-capacity crowd at the Japan National Stadium resting in the palm of his hands, Duplantis dipped his head and channeled Oblique Seville from the night before, hightailing it down the runway with his hair delicately bouncing in the breeze. He jammed his pole down, and like a cocked spring being violently released, shot up into the humid Tokyo sky, majestically contorting his body over the bar to become the first person in history to clear 6.30m. Cue the wild celebration.
Duplantis sprung off the mat after his successful third attempt at the height and bounded around the stadium in delirium, first celebrating with his giddy competitors, then bowing to those in attendance, and finally embracing girlfriend Desiré Inglande.
The 25-year-old crushed the men's pole vault field once again on Monday evening in Tokyo. Australia's Kurtis Marschall repeated his performance from the world championships in Budapest two years ago, winning bronze with a personal best jump of 5.95m, while Greece's Emmanouil Karalis won the silver medal. But the night belonged to one man, and one man only.
"I always wanted to come back to Tokyo because I knew it was a wonderful city," said Duplantis, who won the Olympic title in this same venue four years earlier. "This is better than I ever imagined. I'm lost for words. This was the biggest dream ever coming true for me. I'm so happy. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."
There's nobody in sports further ahead of the pack in their respective discipline than Duplantis, who has reduced the men's pole vault competition to a one-man, stadium-stopping spectacle over the last half decade. Entering Monday's final, his season best jump was 6.29m. The next best of anyone in the field? 6.08m. When he enters an event it's never a question of whether he will win it, but rather what uncharted height he might reach.
Since 2020, Duplantis is a perfect two-from-two at the Olympic Games, a perfect five-from-five in Diamond League finals, and now a perfect three-from-three at the world championships. But his greatest feat might just be his ability to continually raise the bar, both figuratively and literally.
Duplantis first took hold of the men's pole vault world record with a jump of 6.17m in Poland at the beginning of the 2020 season. Since then, he has been exploiting World Athletics' prize money bonus for a new world record, collecting the US$100,000 cheque now 14 times, on each occasion by moving the bar up in a 1cm increment. He knows he can soar higher, he just doesn't need to. Not yet.
Also on night three in Tokyo, Australia's Liam Adcock was a surprise casualty in the men's long jump qualification phase. The 29-year-old came into this meet boasting the equal third-best jump of the season but was unable to produce anything close to his best in Tokyo, finishing 14th with a best effort of 7.94m.
New Zealand's Geordie Beamish stunned a stacked field to become the men's 3000m steeplechase world champion. Race favourite Soufine El Bakkali had powered to the front on the final lap and looked sure to continue his dominance in the event, before Beamish found an extra gear over the final meters to pip him on the line.
Switzerland's Ditaji Kambundji prevailed in a tight women's 100m hurdles final, while Camryn Rogers of Canada won her second world title in the women's hammer throw.
Earlier in the day, Tanzania's Alphonce Simbu edged Germany's Amanal Petros in an incredible men's marathon that was decided by a dramatic photo finish. Simbu and Petros both ran 2:09:48, with Simbu getting the win by three hundredths of a second in what was the closest marathon in world championships history, a tighter finish than the two 100m finals on night two.
Here's how day three at the World Athletics Championships unfolded: