Just nine days after increasing his own world pole vault record, Mondo Duplantis scaled a meeting record of 6.13m at the Golden Spike, one of four meeting records set at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting in Ostrava on Tuesday (24).
While the world and Olympic champion from Sweden was busy chasing heights on the infield, three meeting records tumbled on the track thanks to middle-distance duo Phanuel Koech and Prudence Sekgodiso, as well as Bahraini sprinter Salwa Eid Naser.
Duplantis, contesting his third competition within 12 days, showed a brief sign of fatigue when knocking the bar off with his first attempt at his opening height, 5.62m. He got over safely on his second try, though, then went on to clear 5.82m first time. Following a miss at 5.92m – a height that Emmanouil Karalis cleared first time – Duplantis regained the lead with a first-time clearance at 5.97m.
Karalis passed that bar and went straight to 6.02m, but missed on all three attempts. Duplantis, however, got over it on his first try and then did the same at 6.13m – a one-centimetre improvement on the meeting record he set two years ago. He bowed out with three misses at a would-be world record of 6.29m, but was more than happy with his performance.
“I felt good with the jumps, considering I felt as though I was operating on less than a full tank,” said Duplantis, who cleared 6.15m in Oslo 12 days ago, then a world record of 6.28m in Stockholm three days later.
Kenyan teenager Phanuel Koech showed that his recent world U20 1500m record of 3:27.72, set four days ago in Paris in just his second ever race at the distance, was no fluke. The 18-year-old ran away from a quality field in Ostrava to win in a meeting record of 3:29.05, followed home by Portugal’s Isaac Nader (3:29.37), world indoor 800m champion Josh Hoey (3:29.75) and Australian teenager Cameron Myers, whose 3:29.80 clocking is an Oceanian U20 record.
Prudence Sekgodiso was similarly convincing in the women’s 800m. The world indoor champion broke away in the closing stages to win in 1:57.16 from Botswana’s Oratile Nowe, who set a national record of 1:57.49 in second place.
One of the oldest meeting records – Tatana Kocembova’s 49.67 in the 400m, set back in 1983 – was finally broken, thanks to 2019 world champion Salwa Eid Naser. The Bahraini sprinter eased ahead down the home straight to win in 49.15 from USA’s Lynna Irby-Jackson (49.82) and world indoor record-holder Femke Bol (49.98).
Gout grabs first senior circuit win
Prodigious Australian sprinter Gout Gout notched up his first win in a senior international race, giving a glimpse as to what’s to come either later this season or in future years.
Cuba’s Reynier Mena got off to a strong start in the men’s 200m and led at the half-way stage, but Gout clawed back the deficit and crossed the line in 20.02 (0.0m/s), taking 0.02 off the Oceanian record he set in December. Mena finished second in 20.19.
It came just half an hour after Peter Bol narrowly missed out on an Oceanian record in the men’s 800m. The Australian won in 1:43.80, just 0.01 shy of his own continental mark, finishing ahead of Croatia’s Marino Bloudek, who set a national record of 1:44.02.
World champion Neeraj Chopra made a successful Golden Spike debut, winning the men’s javelin with a third-round effort of 85.29m.
In the women’s event, Adriana Vilagos got the better of Olympic champion Haruka Kitaguchi, 64.87m to 63.88m.
Meanwhile, there was an Italian 1-2 in the men’s shot put, thanks to Leonardo Fabbri (21.70m) and Zane Weir (21.39m).
Davies dashes to national 100m record
Liberia’s Thelma Davies was a surprise winner of the women’s 100m as the top three women finished inside 11 seconds.
Davies held off strong challenges from Marie Josee Ta Lou-Smith and Zoe Hobbs to win in a Liberian record of 10.91, her first sub-11-second clocking. Ta Lou-Smith was second in a season’s best of 10.92 while Hobbs improved her own Oceanian record in third with 10.94.
World record-holder Tobi Amusan was a class apart in the women’s 100m hurdles, winning by 0.29 in 12.45 (1.4m/s). By contrast, the men’s 110m hurdles was extremely close as a photofinish had to separate US duo Dylan Beard and Grant Holloway, both men being given 13.13 with Beard awarded victory.
Elsewhere, Chris Robinson produced a big season’s best of 48.05 to win the men’s 400m hurdles from Brazil’s Matheus Lima (48.11). Belgium’s Daniel Segers won the men’s 400m flat in a PB of 44.63. – worldathletics.org
