World Athletics ratifies Duplantis' pole vault, Rojas' indoor triple jump world records
Jun 29, 2020
Quai Antoine [Monaco], June 29 : Armand Duplantis' world pole vault record of 6.17m and Yulimar Rojas' world indoor triple jump record of 15.43m have been ratified by the World Athletics on Monday.
Duplantis was in sensational form throughout the indoor season and opened his 2020 campaign with a 6.00m vault in Dusseldorf. Four days later, at the World Athletics Indoor Tour meeting in the Polish city of Torun on February 8, he went much higher.
The European champion started with first-attempt clearances at 5.72m, 5.92m and 6.01m. On his first attempt at 6.17m, he brushed the bar with his thigh on the way up, sending it crashing down.
"After that first attempt, I thought, 'yeah, I just need two more attempts at this and I got it'. I was pretty confident that I had it," he said.
He only needed one more. It wasn't clean - again he brushed it slightly on the way up - but the bar stayed on as he sailed back down to earth. For the first time, as a world record-holder.
"It's a big dream, too. It's not a little dream. And it's a whole process building up to that moment. I can't really get my head around it," Duplantis said.
His vault added one centimetre to the previous record set by Renaud Lavillenie of France in Donetsk, Ukraine, on February 15, 2014.
One week later at the World Athletics Indoor Tour meeting in Glasgow, Duplantis vaulted 6.18m - a mark that is still pending ratification.
On the other hand, Rojas was also a revelation during the indoor season. The two-time world indoor and outdoor champion from Venezuela had just two triple jump competitions, her first being a 15.03m leap in Metz.
The 24-year-old then made history at the World Athletics Indoor Tour meeting in Madrid on February 21. After a cautious start to the competition, recording two fouls and a valid 14.65m, she bounded out to 15.29m in round four, the second-best indoor jump in history.
She wasn't finished, though. Following one more foul in round five, Rojas flew out to 15.43m in the final round, adding seven centimetres to the previous world indoor record set by Russia's Tatyana Lebedeva in Budapest on March 6, 2004.
"I'm over the moon; I can't believe I'm the world record-holder. When I managed 15.29m so easily in the fourth round, I thought the record was definitely in my legs," Rojas had said afterwards.
"Before the competition, Ivan (Pedroso, her coach) told me, 'today is your day, don't miss this chance, the only thing you have to do is remain calm and focused and you'll jump far'," she added.
