Pole vault world record holder Armand Duplantis made a strong start to the super athletics year 2022 with a gala performance at the meeting in Karlsruhe. The Olympic champion from Sweden jumped the magic six-meter mark in his season debut with 6.02 m and underlined his exceptional position.
At 6.19 m, one centimeter higher than his two-year-old world record, the 22-year-old subsequently failed three times. Second with 5.89 m was the American KC Lightfoot, who had previously held the world record for the year (5.91). The German champion Oleg Zernikel (Landau) was fourth with 5.71 m, the World Championship fourth Bo Kanda Lita Baehre (Leverkusen) finished sixth.
Duplantis is planning a trio in 2022 with the titles at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade (March 18-20), the World Championships in Eugene/Oregon (July 15-24) and the European Championships in Munich (August 15-21). ).
The only 20-year-old Ethiopian Berihu Aregawi ran the fifth-best time in history in the 3000 m in 7:26.20 minutes and missed the 24-year-old world record by Kenyan Daniel Komen by just 1.3 seconds. Dortmund’s Mohamed Mohumed was fourth, his 7:41.35 minutes meant third place in the “eternal” German leaderboard behind Dieter Baumann and Arne Gabius.
The performance of Imke Onnen (Hannover), who shared the high jump victory with Brit Emily Borthwick, was also pleasing from a German point of view. The winning height of 1.91 m also means a world record for the year.