‘Mondo’ breaks pole vault world record as Australia’s Marschall wins bronze again

Tokyo: Kurtis Marschall pole vaulted better than he has ever jumped in his life, won a second successive world championships bronze medal … and got pumped.

Marschall was jumping against Sweden’s Armand “Mondo” Duplantis. Which means Marschall was almost playing another sport.

Duplantis not only won gold, he then broke his own world record again. Having been sure of the gold when he cleared 6.15 metres, Duplantis put the bar to 6.30m and for 14th time broke the world record. It was the 13th time that the record he broke was his own.

He ended up jumping 30 centimetres higher than silver and 35cm higher than Marschall’s commendable 5.95m for bronze.

Marschall also won bronze at the last world championships in Budapest. He’s had the misfortune of having a career that collides with the peak of the greatest the sport has ever seen.

“It’s stupid. It’s tough. You know, I just got pumped tonight. But I jumped the best that I ever have against some of the best guys in the world on the biggest stage I’ve ever jumped on, other than the Olympics,” Marschall said.

“It would have been a crazy night had I jumped 6m. But 5.95m, a bronze medal, first medal for the team this championship, I can’t complain with that.

“I’m super happy with how I performed and going clean through 5.90, I’ve never done that before ... to put myself in the mix the whole way, keep the pressure on.”

Marschall’s effort needs to be put into that context. Finishing third when you are jumping against the greatest the world has ever seen – by a long margin – is like trying to impress Shane Warne with your leg-spin. His bronze is not diminished by that; it is enhanced.

Marschall cleared 5.95m and tried to winkle out that extra 5cm to clear 6m for the first time and tease himself into thinking he was close to Duplantis. Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis of Greece cleared 6m – the only person other than Duplantis to do so – then had a couple of failed shots at ambit heights beyond that.

Duplantis has cleared 6m more times than any other man in history. That he cleared 6.15m to safeguard the gold was a perfunctory moment.

No disrespect to Karalis or Marschall here, but it felt like Duplantis was playing a different sport; they were playing croquet while he was on the golf course.

It had the sense of Good Will Hunting about it when Matt Damon’s character, Will, famously looks to Stellan Skarsgard, the maths professor Lambeau, as he wrestles with a maths problem and is exasperated.

“Do you know how easy this is for me? Do you have any f---ing idea how easy this is? This is a f---ing joke! And I’m sorry you can’t do this, I really am because I wouldn’t have to f---ing sit here and watch you fumble around and f--- it up,” he said.

Duplantis standing at the pole vault run up is far more polite, but he could well be played by (a young) Damon.

Duplantis has won the last two Olympic golds. He now has three, the last three, world championship golds. He has also won the last three world indoor titles and won the last five Diamond Leagues. If pole vault was better regarded, he would have an argument as being the greatest of athletics’ greats.

“It [what Duplantis is doing] is miracle stuff, fairytale stuff, and to be a part of that is so cool,” Marschall said.

“We all knew he was gonna do it [break the world record] and cap off the perfect season. He’s already had five perfect seasons before this, but, to come back, he didn’t jump the world record in Tokyo at the Olympics. I think he wanted to do it here this time. And you could just see it in his eyes. He was going to clear it for sure. He wouldn’t let that go away.”

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