Sweden's Armand Duplantis won a fourth consecutive European pole vault title on Sunday night, clearing 6.15 metres to set a championship record at Alexander Stadium in Birmingham. The 26-year-old secured the final major gold medal of the week-long European Athletics Championships and reinforced his dominance of an event in which he holds the world record.
Duplantis entered the final at 5.55 metres and cleared that opening height comfortably before passing 5.70. Reporting from the competition said he and Greece's Emmanouil Karalis both encountered an initial failure at 6.00 metres, then corrected their attempts as the contest narrowed to the two leading vaulters.
The decisive phase came at 6.10 metres. Duplantis cleared the bar on his first attempt, while Karalis struck it. Both athletes had passed 6.05, making their choices about later heights and remaining attempts central to the tactical contest. Duplantis then cleared 6.15 to establish the championship record and complete his fourth straight European outdoor victory.
The Swede did not attempt to improve his own 6.31-metre world record after the title was settled. Birmingham 2026 organisers said before the championships that this was the only major championship at which he had not set a world record, but the demanding duel and the number of jumps required left the continental record as the night's highest mark.
The victory added another championship to a record that already included two Olympic gold medals, three outdoor world titles and four world indoor titles. European Athletics had identified him as a three-time defending continental champion before Birmingham, while World Athletics records show that his current global mark of 6.31 metres came in Uppsala in March 2026.
Duplantis's result provided a marquee conclusion to the championships, which ran from August 10 to 16 in the first British city to host the European Athletics Championships. The 6.15-metre clearance now stands as the competition benchmark, and his next appearances will again carry the question of whether he can raise a world record he has already improved 15 times since 2020.
Comments