Latest news with #GyulaiIstvánMemorial
Indian Express
5 days ago
- Sport
- Indian Express
What explains Mondo Duplantis breaking the pole vault world record one centimetre at a time
In July 1985, Sergey Bubka became the first human to cross the 6-metre mark in pole vault, one of the greatest feats in track and field history. From 5.94 metres, Bubka's personal best and a world record set in Italy nearly a year earlier, Bubka improved the mark by six centimetres, a gazing-in-awe moment and the last big bump up in the record books. Bubka then went from 6.01 metres to 6.03 to 6.05 and subsequently pulled off a series of one-centimetre improvements at a time when outdoor and indoor records were counted separately. The story behind the one-centimetre obsession was a sponsorship deal with Nike that mandated a bonus every time the Ukrainian broke the world record. Could Bubka have soared higher if he didn't stick to the centimetre-by-centimetre policy? It was not beyond him because video evidence of his jumps shows him soaring well over the crossbar. Current pole vault phenom Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis has taken a leaf out of Bubka's how-to-break-world-records digest while going well past the marks the latter registered. Da la sensación de que puede saltar 6️⃣.4️⃣0️⃣m con facilidad. Así, a cámara lenta se aprecia mejor la belleza de un récord mundial. Lo ha subido Armand Duplantis 🇸🇪 a su Instagram. ⬇️⬇️⬇️ — DeportesOlímpicos (@OlympicDeportes) August 13, 2025 The Swedish-American pole vaulter broke the world record for the 13th time – crossing 6.29 metres at the Gyulai István Memorial in Budapest on Tuesday, an improvement of a centimetre over his effort in June that bettered the 6.27m jump in February. From the first time Duplantis broke the record in February 2020 — jumping 6.17 metres – to 6.29 metres earlier this week — he's gone about defying gravity one centimeter at a time. Most times when Duplantis has rewritten the record by a centimetre, there's enough room between his twisting torso and the crossbar, a sign that he could have taken another attempt immediately afterwards. But the supremely talented athlete has the confidence of another record-shattering jump being around the corner. He's also being financially-smart, like Bubka. The 25-year-old earns a bonus from his sponsors, the two prominent ones being Puma and Red Bull, every time he breaks a world record. But they don't double it if he breaks it at the same competition more than once. In a month's time in Tokyo, Duplantis can add to his bank balance and aura. A gold medal at the World Championships fetches $70,000. In addition, there is a bonus of $100,000 from World Athletics for a world record. Earlier this year, Duplantis said a 'man's got to make a living' when asked by former heptathlete Tiara Williams if he gets a bonus every time he breaks a world record. 'It is pretty true. I got to make a living, you know. A man's got to make a living. Somebody has to do it. There is a bit of a glitch or whatever you want to say. I gotta do what I got to do. I see the stuff (talk of him breaking the record by only a centimetre) a little bit, people send it to me. I think that is a good thing. Not so many people I guess are making, like an abundance of bread in track and field. So I guess that is a good thing that I can capitalise on things,' he said. Despite the money and accolades coming in, and after winning everything there is to win – two Olympic gold medals, two World Championship titles, two world indoor titles and four Diamond League Finals – Duplantis still retains the drive to push the limits. In an interview carried on when asked about how high he can go, Duplantis spoke about a crazy height. This was after he had set the then world record of 6.26 metres in August last year. 'So, we're at 6,26m right now. It's crazy because if you had told me this a few years back, it would have been a pinch-me type of thing. But then, when you're in the situation, you adapt to it and it becomes the new normal. I know what I'm capable of and there's some more that I can push. I think that 6.30m is probably the target in the near future, and 6.40m is achievable in the next few years,' Duplantis said. At the moment, the sky literally seems to be the limit for Duplantis and he's head and shoulders above the competition. The Paris Olympics final results are an example of the gulf in class. Duplantis won gold at 6.25 metres, the only competitor to cross the 6-metre mark. The next best was Sam Kendricks of the USA at 5.95 metres. From a kid with a pole to a master of the vault. ✨ Mondo Duplantis cleared 6.29m in Budapest, making it 1️⃣3️⃣ World Records and counting! 🤯️ — Olympic Khel (@OlympicKhel) August 13, 2025 Two years ago at the Budapest World Championships, even when not at his best, Duplantis was a cut above the rest. He failed to set a world record, dropping the bar twice at 6.23m but still took the gold (6.10m). In second place was the Philippines' Ernest John Obiena at 6.00m. At an age when most children of his age play in neighborhood parks, Duplantis was pole-vaulting. His parents are top athletes, father Greg a pole vaulter and mother Helena a heptathlete. The family had set up a pole vault pit in the backyard of their home in Lafayette, Louisiana, where a four-year-old Duplantis first tried his hand at the sport that would make him famous. Watching his elder brother Andreas jump got Duplantis, six years younger, hooked onto the pole vault. 'My eldest brother was my biggest inspiration. He was my idol and just watching him grow up and be so much better than me – I just wanted to be like him and follow in my brother's footsteps. When he was jumping four metres at a time that I was jumping two metres, I just thought that was the most crazy thing and I couldn't understand how it was possible. It was super-inspirational and I wanted to keep trying to see what I could do in the sport,' Duplantis was quoted as saying by World Athletics. The question today is not if Duplantis will go higher but what is his peak. He wants to keep everyone guessing by raising the bar one centimetre at a time.
The 42
7 days ago
- Sport
- The 42
Mark English smashes his own 800m Irish record in Budapest
MARK ENGLISH HAS smashed his own Irish record over 800m with a superb run at the Gyulai István Memorial, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meet, in Budapest today. The Donegal man ran 1:43.37 to finish second to Kenya's Laban Kipkorir Chepkwony, who won in a time of 1:42.96. He's done it again!!! 🤯🔥 Mark English (Finn Valley AC) obliterates his own Irish record over 800m clocking 1:43.37 to finish second at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting in Budapest 🙌 *Record subject to ratification #IrishAthletics — Athletics Ireland (@irishathletics) August 12, 2025 Advertisement English's run is over half a second faster than his previous record of 1:43.92, which he set in June. That result saw English, 32, become the first Irishman to run the 800m under 1:44. English, who switched coach to Justin Rinaldi of the Fast 8 Track Club following the Paris Olympics, has now clocked all of his six fastest ever times this year. Today's result in Budapest is subject to ratification. Meanwhile, Darragh McElhinney of Bantry AC clocked a PB of 7:35.16 to finish seventh in the men's 3000m. The result moved the Cork man to fifth on the Irish all-time list.
TimesLIVE
7 days ago
- Sport
- TimesLIVE
Akani Simbine snatches second; Tokyo qualifier for Wayde van Niekerk
Akani Simbine found his after-burners in time to snatch a share of second place in the 100m behind Olympic silver medallist Kishane Thompson of Jamaica at the Gyulai István Memorial in Budapest on Tuesday night. Earlier in the competition, 33-year-old Wayde van Niekerk achieved a world championship qualifying time as he ran his fastest 200m race in eight years. But Simbine, fourth at the Paris Olympics last year, was the man to watch a month out from the global showpiece in Tokyo. Simbine, the anchor of the 4x100m relay team that claimed silver at the 2024 Games, had had a disappointing showing at the last Diamond League meet in London last month, and once again he got off to a slow start, finding himself near the back of the field. But unlike his display just more than three weeks ago, the speedster delivered his trademark top-end speed to cross the line in 10.01 to share second place with Abdul-Rasheed Saminu of Ghana. Thompson won in 9.95.
Irish Examiner
7 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Mark English smashes his Irish 800m record in Budapest
In a season of breakthroughs, Mark English took another big step forward on Tuesday evening, the 32-year-old smashing his Irish record when finishing second over 800m in 1:43.37 at the Gyulai István Memorial, a Continental Tour Gold meeting, in Budapest. That brought him home behind Kenya's Laban Kipkorir Chepkwony (1:42.96), with France's Yanis Meziane third in 1:43.71. It's the third time English has broken his national 800m record this season, having clocked 1:44.34 in Poland in May and then 1:43.92 in Hengelo, the Netherlands, in June. English had been in fine form since then, powering to his 10th national outdoor title over 800m earlier this month ahead of Cian McPhillips. 'Hopefully I'll have another race or two before the World Championships and I can't wait for that because I'm in great shape at the minute,' he said after that race. 'I'd like to be able to show it with a time.' English bided his time midway through the final lap and unleashed his typically strong finish to take the runner-up spot, his time moving him joint-16th on the world list for 2025 and carving over half a second off his Irish record, marking the third time this season that he has run under 1:44. English had a number of world-class operators behind him, with Spain's Mariano Garcia – a former world indoor and European champion – fourth in 1:43.84, while reigning European Indoor champion Sam Chapple was fifth in 1:43.96 and 2023 world bronze medallist Ben Pattison came home seventh in 1:44.14. English, who won his fifth European medal by taking bronze at the European Indoors in the Netherlands in March, has never made a global final but as the countdown continues to next month's World Championships in Tokyo, he looks to have a decent chance of doing so this year. He has yet to announce if this will be his last season. 'I don't really like to put a clock on my career,' he said in June. 'If you think you're retiring at a certain point, that might change how you come into a race; it might change your motivation.' He said part of his motivation to continue this year was to run under 1:44 for the first time. 'I wanted to get the best out of myself in terms of what I knew I was capable of doing,' he said. 'I knew I had a 1:43 in me and I felt it would be very hard for me to hang up my spikes if I didn't achieve what I knew I was capable of doing.'
