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Dominant Duplantis, double for De Grasse at Golden Spike

football28 May 2024 19:00| © AFP
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Reigning Olympic and world champion Armand Duplantis cleared six metres and narrowly missed a world record attempt at the Golden Spike athletics meet in the Czech Republic on Tuesday.

The 24-year-old Swede set a world record at 6.24m in April and got close to beating 6.25m at the eastern Czech city of Ostrava but brushed the bar with his belly on the third attempt.

"I'm happy about the last attempt, it felt quite good. I was actually closer than I thought I was going to be. Gives me confidence going forward," Duplantis said.

"I'm quite pleased with the jumps, I feel really good on the runway right now."

However, he added the conditions were "a little bit too cold, a little bit too windy" for perfect jumps.

Canada's Andre De Grasse won his two races on the wet Ostrava track, clocking 10.10 seconds for a season best on 100 metres and 20.09 seconds in his first appearance on 200 metres this year.

"I came here to test my fitness and endurance, to see where I am at. So yes, I am satisfied with two victories," he said.

"It was a good run, a season best, so now it is the time to go back, work on some things, try to get my speed back," he added after the shorter sprint.

De Grasse beat Ryiem Forde of Jamaica as well as Olympic champion and his training partner Marcell Jacobs on the 100-metre track.

"Marcell Jacobs is a great training partner and training with him helps me with my 100 metres, which is what I want to work on," said De Grasse.

"Beating him today at that distance may give me some bragging rights."

Reigning Olympic champion Steven Gardiner of the Bahamas won the 400 metres in a season best of 44.39 seconds, while Poland's Natalia Kaczmarek dominated the women's 400 metres in 50.09 sec.

Algerian Djamel Sedjati, second at the 2022 world championships, won the 800 metres in a world-leading time of 1min 43.51sec.

Reigning world champion Haruka Kitaguchi of Japan won women's javelin for 60.47 metres.

And Briton Molly Caudery won the women's pole vault with 4.84 metres.

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