Duplantis breaks world pole vault record on Budapest return |20 August 2025

Mondo Duplantis in action (© Getty Images)

Duplantis breaks world pole vault record on Budapest return

Pole vault superstar Mondo Duplantis set his 13th world record with a 6.29m clearance to highlight the Istvan Gyulai Memorial – a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting – in Budapest on Tuesday August 12, 2025.

The Swedish vaulter, returning to the scene of his 2023 World Championships triumph, was pushed all the way by Greek rival Emmanouil Karalis with both men clearing 6.02m on their first attempts.

Karalis eventually bowed out after two misses at 6.11m, but Duplantis went clear at that height to add one centimetre to the Hungarian all-comers’ record he set when winning the world title at this stadium in 2023. He then moved the bar to 6.29m – a one-centimetre increase on the world record height he cleared in Stockholm in June – and got over it on his second try, giving the Gyulai Memorial its first ever world record.

The first world record in the men's pole vault was recognised by the International Association of Athletics Federations in 1912.

As of April 20, 2024, 80 world records have been ratified by the IAAF (now World Athletics) in the event. Since 2000, World Athletics makes no distinction between indoor and outdoor settings when establishing pole vault world records. This new rule was not applied retroactively. The introduction in the early 1950s of flexible vaulting poles made from composites such as fiberglass or carbon fiber allowed vaulters to achieve greater height.

World Athletics