World and Olympic pole vault champion Armand Duplantis improved his world record with a leap of 6.23m at the Diamond League finals on Sunday, September 17, as Gudaf Tsegay shattered the women's 5,000m world record. Swedish superstar Duplantis added a centimeter to the world record of 6.22m he recorded in France in February. He has now re-set the world record seven times. Five of those marks were set indoors, with both of his outdoor world marks coming at Hayward Field in Eugene, where he won the world title last year.
"I'm two for two right now on world records coming here to Hayward," Duplantis said. It has absolutely everything. It has the history, it has the modern touch. The track is really fast, the crowd and energy is fantastic." Duplantis retained his world title in Budapest last month with a clearance of 6.10m and cleared 6.12 in Ostrava in June. He'd failed in a string of attempts at 6.23 since February, including at Brussels last weekend, but said the smaller field in the finals was more conducive to a record attempt "I think that it's a lot easier to be fresh at that world record height," he said.
Duplantis had already secured victory with a height of 6.02 – the 73rd clearance of his career of more than six meters. In his first effort at 6.23, with the crowd chanting, he raced up the runway and sailed over. "I just try to jump high," said Duplantis, who believes he can continue to improve the record. "The limit is very high, and I hope that I can continue to jump well and keep jumping higher than I did today."
Ethiopia's Tsegay had electrified the crowd with her spectacular 5,000m win in 14min 00.21sec. The reigning 10,000m world champion carved almost five seconds off the previous 5,000m record of 14:05.20, set by Kenyan Faith Kipyegon in Paris on June 9.
Kenyan Beatrice Chebet was second to Tsegay in 14:05.92, the third-fastest time ever. "My focus today was the world record," said Tsegay, who won the 2022 5,000m world title in Eugene and was disappointed with a 13th place finish in that event in Budapest that left her "very hungry in my mind."