ROME (AP) — Armand Duplantis still has some work to do before extending his pole vault world record again.
The American-born Swede, known as “Mondo,” missed three attempts at clearing 6.25 meters at the European Championships on Wednesday.
But the Olympic and two-time world champion still claimed a third European title and extended his championship record to 6.10. And he has the Paris Olympics in less than 50 days to look forward to.
Duplantis has set the world record eight times, the last coming when he cleared 6.24 at the season-opening Diamond League meet in China in April.
The Stadio Olimpico crowd tried to get “Mondo” going by singing “Volare” — and Duplantis came closest to another world record on his first attempt, hitting the bar with his chest on the way down.
On his second attempt, he hit his shins on the bar. Then his third attempt was the worst of the three.
With the competition ending near midnight, Duplantis acknowledged afterward that he was tired.
“I did not really think I was attempting the world record today,” Duplantis said. “It was not part of the plan. After the 6.10 meters, there was just too much energy there. I looked at my parents and we both had the same idea, we were like, ‘It is just fun, so why not?’ I cannot complain.”
So it was an anticlimactic finish to the six-day championships.
But earlier, several other Olympic champions also claimed golds.
Jakob Ingebritsen, whose father was recently accused of abusing one of his other children, dominated the 1,500 in 3:31.95. The Norwegian shaved nearly a second off his own championship record set two years ago to complete the 1,500-5,000 double at Euros for the third time.
Marcell Jacobs led host Italy to victory in the 4×100 relay in 37.82 as the Azzurri warm up to defend their unexpected gold from the Tokyo Games.
Defending European champion Britain didn’t qualify for the final after a poor handover from Richard Kilty to Romell Glave resulted in a last-place finish in their heat.
It was Italy’s 11th gold and 24th medal overall to lead both categories by a large margin.
Malaika Mihambo of Germany leaped 7.22 into a headwind to take the long jump title with her biggest jump since 2019 — when she reached 7.30.
“This is madness, I have goose bumps,” Mihambo said. “The 7.22 meters was close to a perfect jump. I hit the board well. But the headwind was disturbing, so the result could have been even better.”
Femke Bol anchored the Netherlands to victory in the 4×400 for her third medal of the championship, having also won the 400 hurdles and helped the Dutch win the 4×400 mixed relay.
Keely Hodgkinson of Britain defended her 800 title in 1:58.65 and Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republic won the javelin competition with a throw of 88.65.
Hodgkinson and Vadlejch are Olympic silver medalists.
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