'If I Break World Record...': Armand Duplantis Reveals Usain Bolt's 'Party Tonight' Promise
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Armand Duplantis says Usain Bolt promised that the two would party together if he improved his career high.
Sweden's Armand Duplantis says hopes of a rare meet-up with sprint legend Usain Bolt acted as an extra motivation for him ahead of his world record triumph at the Stockholm Diamond League event on Sunday.
Duplantis raised the bar once again by breaching 6.28 metres and setting a new pole vault world record at the Stockholm event. It was the 12th time in his career that he broke past the world-best mark.
The double Olympic champion had the crowd behind him after promising fans that he would aim to beat the record he had set yet again. But an amusing pre-game conversation with Bolt further provided the 25-year-old a spring in his stride.
Speaking to Swedish broadcaster SVT, Duplantis shared Bolt had promised him they would party together if he backed his words and shattered his career high.
'For me it's pretty cool, actually. He said if I break the world record we can party tonight, so I'm sure it's going to be a fun night with him, but I'm just so happy," Duplantis said.
Bolt was present for Thursday's Diamond League event in Oslo before the legend took a train to Stockholm where he set out to try the nightlife.
The 100m and 200m sprint record champion was joined on Sunday night by Duplantis and his family members, who were in attendance when he improved on his previous record set in February by one centimetre on his first attempt.
'There were so many of them, it took me 10 minutes to hug them all! My two brothers, my mother, my grandmother and my grandfather. It's been a few years since they had been to a competition to see me. They battled to be here," Duplantis said.
'My grandma, she wanted me to promise yesterday that I would break the world record today, so I had a lot of pressure on me to do that in front of her, and I'm glad that I could do it for her," he added.
Australia's Kurtis Marschall was Duplantis' closest rival at the Diamond League at 5.90m before he failed his three attempts to clear the six-metre mark. The Stadion crowd stood in elation for the local star after he powered through his run-up, planted a pole and soared through to the world record.
'This was one of my biggest goals and dreams, to set a world record here at Stadion. It's like the Olympics and Stadion, they're the same level for me. I really wanted to do it, I had my whole family here, from both sides, it's magic, it's magic. Every time I broke the world record, I felt it in my first jump that 'this could be the day', but today it felt a little tougher. It didn't feel that natural from the beginning, it didn't feel great in my legs, but I only needed one (try)," said an emotional Duplantis.
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