(Reuters) – World silver medallist Mondo Duplantis narrowly missed setting a world record but still cleared a season leading 6.00 metres to win the pole vault at the World Athletics Indoor Tour meeting in Dusseldorf on Tuesday.
The American-born Swede was bidding for a world record 6.17 metres when he brushed off the bar with his arm during his second attempt at the height. Had Duplantis succeeded, he would have topped Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie’s 6.16m set in Ukraine on Feb. 15, 2014.
“I thought it was possible,” Duplantis said of the record attempt at his opening indoor meeting. “You don’t think that everything’s going to be put together in your first meet just because you’re physically fit. But it came together. It came together nicely. “
World champion Sam Kendricks finished second at 5.80m.
Five other season leads were set at the German meeting.
Norway’s Filip Ingebrigtsen took the men’s 1,500 in 3:36.32, while Beatrice Chepkoech, the 3,000m steeplechase record holder, won the women’s 1,500 in a Kenyan indoor record 4:02.09.
In a fast 3,000m race, Ethiopian Selemon Barega powered past Kenya’s Bethwell Birgen on the final straight to win in 7:35.71. Ethiopian Getnet Wale beat out Birgen for second.
In field events, Croatia’s Filip Mihaljevic claimed the shot put in a national record 21.52m and Germany’s Neele Eckhart won the women’s triple jump at 14.17m.
Next stop on the tour is Torun, Poland, on Saturday.
(Reporting by Gene Cherry in Salvo, North Carolina, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
