PARIS, France – Day five of track & field witnessed the greatest performance in pole vault history, and maybe even track and field history, at the Stade de France in Saint Denis.
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Mondo Duplantis continues to cement his legacy as the greatest pole vaulter in world history, claiming his second Olympic-gold medal on Monday. This accomplishment made him the first back-to-back pole vault gold medalist at the Olympics since Bob Richards (USA) who did so at 1952 Helsinki and 1956 Melbourne. Duplantis also ties Bob Richards for the most pole vault gold medals in Olympics history at two.
The day started for Duplantis passing the first height of the competition at 5.50 meters (18’ 0.5”). He took his first jump of the day at height No. 2, which came in at 5.70 meters (18’ 8.5”), an cleared the bar with ease. He proceeded to skip height three (5.80m) and went on to skip 5.85 meters (19’ 2.25”) with ease once again. After skipping the height of 5.90 meters (19’ 4.25”), Duplantis was one of two athletes to clear the sixth bar height of 5.95 meters (19’ 6.25”).
He continued his historic day clearing the height of 6.00 meters (19’ 8.25”), which secured his Olympic-gold-winning day. But he was not done there. Duplantis set his eyes on his next target: the Olympic record. The American-Swede cleared the height of 6.10 meters (20’ 0.25”) with ease, continuing his perfect day above the pit.
The undisputed greatest of all time in pole vault capped it off by attempting his ninth world record in his premier event. Duplantis had the height on his first two attempts to clear 6.25 meters (20’ 6”), but was unable to go unscathed has he came down from the fall both times. His third attempt was to perfection as he soared over the record height.
A day after clocking a season-best time of 22.24 seconds (+0.5 m/s) to win her 200-meter first-round heat, Favour Ofili was back for more a day later.
Ofili did not disappoint the crowd in Paris as she put up a new season-best time of 22.05 seconds (0.0 m/s) in heat one of the semifinals, earning an auto-qualifying spot for the final at 2:40 p.m. CT tomorrow. Her first final appearance makes her the first Nigerian woman to make the 200m closer since the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. She finished third overall of the three heats combined, and will most likely need to see a new PR and Nigerian national-record time to win tomorrow
Starting the day for the Tigers was Ella Onojuvwevwo in the women’s 400-meter heats. The sophomore got out fast in heat three but slowly faded to a sixth-place finish in the heat with a time of 51.65 seconds. Although she did not earn a qualifying spot for the semifinals, she will get a second chance at life in the repechage rounds tomorrow at 4:20 a.m. CT.
Senior Claudio Romero had a stellar season that saw many highs, including making his first Olympic appearance for his home-country Chile. He began his first appearance Monday in the discus throw qualification round in Group B. Romero was unable to register a throw without a fault, finishing his trip with “no mark”.
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