Olympia 2021: Armond Duplandis wins gold and dominates the polar bear

That first try! Armond Duplandis throws on a bar placed at a height of 6.19 meters, only as lightly as he can. He was already on the other side, his eyes wide open and ready to fall on the landing mat, he could only see it slowly moving when he touched the bar lightly with his upper body.

Look, it starts to shake, it looks lively: it almost seems to think about what to do. Then she decides to fall, and the next world record for the 21-year-old Sweden will have to wait a few more weeks.

Record, it was very close. It didn’t fall, but it was a show again, this performance of the new athletic superstar. Duplandis has been a gold medalist for a long time and that encouraged him in his quest to record the competition. They all lined up and complimented him: Christopher Nilsson, an American over 5.97 meters tall, could at least impress Duplandis a little. Diego Bras, from Brazil, won the bronze. Two more Germans, Oleg Journigel and Po Kanda Lita Behre, were 5.80 meters high that day. But above all, Renault Lavalini. Duplandis’ predecessor dominates the scene.

Now the 34-year-old Frenchman knows what it will be like when you compete alone at the end of the evening. Ten years ago he was a star, had world records and celebrated the 2012 Olympic gold medal in London. At the time, a young man by the name of Dublandis had a poster with Lavilleni’s signature on the wall. He later said he wanted to fly like him. So the situation has changed.

The hard stadium collided with the ground

He would still be one of Dublandis’ biggest rivals, but that day’s match turned out to be his personal play. Two weeks ago Lavilini already had torn ligaments in her ankle and twisted painful knees in preparation. Now, on Tuesday in Tokyo, the Frenchman jumped from a height of five meters instead of a soft mat on a hard arena after failing to jump during a test.

Lavillini then persecuted himself through the match, spoke to coaches several times, spoke repeatedly with Duplandis, and in between struggled with tears of pain and frustration. You don’t want to see it.

However, he tried his best. But nothing came out except successfully crossing the 5.70m mark. Lovellini finished eighth in the category. In three years the summer game will be in Paris, his homeland. It is completely clear whether he will return at the age of 37.

Anyway, he must have been in great shape that day to put Duplandis in danger even at a distance. Sweden’s other main competitor, world champion Sam Kendricks, also came out as a competitor due to a positive corona test, not much to discuss about the gold medal anyway. Duplandis took five jumps to win the coveted gold, and on the first attempt he jumped 5.55 – 5.80 – 5.92 – 5.97 – 6.02 meters five times, after which he surpassed only the world record attempt.

Twenty times over six meters

The son of an American father and a Swedish mother has already crossed the 6-meter target four times this season, or better yet: flew. He has already done this a total of 20 times. In the indoor arena he already crossed 6.18 meters in Glasgow last year, which is the official world record, and on the outside, he has so far crossed the 6.15 meters, and earlier in Rome. Five years ago at the age of 16 he appeared with the younger ones and had already destroyed records one after another. Two years later it has surpassed 5.90 meters. Lavillani did this for the first time at the age of 22, and the famous Sergei Bubka at the age of 21. Duplandis at 18 years old.