Pole vaulter Karalis clears 6 meters
Emmanouil Karalis became the first Greek to soar over 6 meters in the men’s pole vault Sunday.
The results of the Silesia Diamond League meeting in Chorzow, Poland, strongly resembled those of the Paris Olympics 20 days earlier. Gold medalist and world record holder Mondo Duplantis of Sweden won and broke the world record, by a centimeter, of course, clearing 6.26 meters in his second attempt.
Silver medalist Sam Kendricks cleared 6 meters in his second attempt, the same height Duplantis had cleared with his first before going to try for the world record, to earn second place.
Karalis made his historic jump in his third, and final, attempt. Unlike Kendricks, who went on and had three unsuccessful attempts at 6.08 meters, Karalis opted to retire, the national record, personal best and milestone all having been achieved.
His previous personal, and national, record was 5.93 meters
On his way to his new personal best, Karalis had cleared 5.62, 5.72 and 5.82 on his first attempt and 5.92 on his second
KC Lightfoot of the US was fourth in 5.92, Ernest John Obiena of the Philippines fifth in 5.82 and four more cleared 5.82 for places 5-8. Renaud Lavillenie, the man who was the last record holder before Duplantis started his run of now 10 consecutive records, each by a centimeter over the previous, was 10th with 5.72, at 38 years of age.
Indeed, Lavillenie, had ended Sergey Bubka’s run of 14 consecutive world records, the last 9 a centimeter apart, by jumping 6.16 in Bubka’s hometown of Donetsk, Ukraine, on February 15, 2014, two months before it became a war zone.
