Baton Rouge, La. – Mondo Duplantis is now a world record holder times two after his spectacular performance on Thursday at the Diamond League Rome meeting. He cleared a height of 6.15 meters in the pole vault to claim the outdoor world record in addition to his indoor world record that his set in February at 6.18 meters.

“There’s a lot of confusion because the pole vault is the only event which has one World record for both indoors and outdoors,” Duplantis said in an interview with World Athletics after his performance. “I wanted the outdoor world best at 6.15 (meters) so there would no longer be any confusion. I now have the best jumps indoors and outdoors.”

No one had ever gone higher than Sergey Bubka’s 6.14 meter jump in 1994, but that all changed on Thursday as Mondo soared above that height. Mondo set his world record of 6.18 meters indoors in February before COVID-19 shut down the track and field world for a few months. Mondo is rounding back into that form as the shortened 2020 outdoor season nears an end. He had taken 14 attempts at the height of 6.15 meters over the past few months before the 15th try turned a success. He used the advice of fellow vaulter and role model, Renaud Lavillenie, to aid him in clearing the final height.

“I asked Renaud if I should move in a little bit because I hit the bar on the way down (on the first attempt) so the typical thing to do would be to move in a little bit, but he thought I just didn’t take off as well as I could so he said just to hit it with a little more force at the start of the jump,” Duplantis told World Athletics. “After that first attempt I knew what I had to do to do it, I just had to go out there and get it done.”

(Press Release Provided by LSU Athletics)