Pole vaulter Armand Duplantis capped a “beautiful season” with a meet record in the Diamond League Final that was far from his world record.
Duplantis has broken the world record three times this year; the second time was when he won his second Olympic gold medal in Paris, and the most recent in a League meet in Poland on August 25, clearing 6.26 metres.
But after he made 5.92m that nobody else could match in Brussels, he nailed 6.11m on his first attempt and stopped. That was one centimetre more than his own Memorial Van Damme record set last year, and he said he was too tired to continue.
Afterwards, he said his 100m victory over 400 hurdles world record-holder Karsten Warholm in Zurich last week took more out of him than expected.
“My legs felt terrible tonight (Friday) and I’m just really tired,” Duplantis said. “It’s been a crazy couple of weeks: The race against Karsten and then I had to jump the day after. That took a lot more from my body than I expected.
“With 6.11 I got a good result, but the world record wasn’t meant to be. It’s not easy to do better each time. Everything needs to come together. I had some good jumps and I’m really happy about that. Now it’s time to celebrate my beautiful season.”
Olympic champion Julien Alfred’s 100m clash with world champion Sha’Carri Richardson didn’t eventuate. Alfred won in 10.88 seconds. Dina Asher-Smith was second and Marie Josee Ta Lou-Smith was third. Richardson was eighth. Jamaica’s Ackeem Blake won the men’s 100m in 9.93 seconds in a photo finish from Americans Christian Coleman (10.00) and Fred Kerley (10.01).
Sable ninth
India’s 3000m steeplechaser Avinash Sable finished ninth in the season-ending final with a below-par time.
Sable clocked 8 minutes and 17.09 seconds to finish ninth in the 10-man field in his debut DL final.
Amos Serem of Kenya emerged as the Diamond League champion with a time
of 8:06.90.
