No world record this time, but Mondo still the money man

Pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis (center, flanked by competitors Ersu Sasma, left, and Sam Kendricks) failed at a world-record attempt in Saturday’s 50th Prefontaine Classic, but he still won handily (courtesy Tracktown USA)

Editor’s note: I use feet and inches, not meters. Last I checked, the U.S. uses the Imperial system of measurement. Most Americans don’t think the metric system. I do what I can to make it easier for the readers.

EUGENE — It was eight years ago when Armond “Mondo” Duplantis made his debut on the elite track and field scene, finishing fourth in the pole vault at the Prefontaine Classic.

Mississippi’s Sam Kendricks, fresh off winning the U.S. championship, prevailed at 19-2 3/4. World record-holder Renaud Lavillenie of France was second at 19-0 3/4. Duplantis, 17 and having just finished his junior year at Lafayette (La.) High, cleared 18-8 3/4 and gave notice he was a comer.

“I remember I almost made 5.81 (meters, 19 feet, 0 3/4 inches),” Duplantis told me Saturday after winning his specialty at 19-8 3/4 in the 50th renewal of the meet that honors the late Steve Prefontaine. “I felt like I could have won, actually. It was my first time competing against Sam and Renaud and all those guys.

“It humanized them a little bit, too, because I had looked at them as a little bit bigger than life. I felt like they were very beatable that day. That gave me confidence for the future. A lot has changed since then, which is pretty surreal.”

Kendricks, now 32, finished second Saturday at 19-0 3/4. Lavillenie, who turns 39 in September, no-heighted in what likely was his final appearance at Hayward Field. Duplantis, 25, missed three times at a height of 20-7 1/2, which would have bettered his world record. The torch has been passed to Mondo.

In February 2020 at 20 years of age, Duplantis set the universal standard for the first time, clearing 20-2 1/2 in a meet at Torun, Poland. He has improved on his record 11 times since then, earning a bonus of between $50,000 and $100,000 a pop. Twice he has done it at Hayward, jumping 20-4 1/4 in July 2022 and 20-5 1/4 in September 2023.

Duplantis — whose current world standard of 20-7 was achieved on June 15 in a Diamond League meet at Stockholm — tried for a third at Hayward Saturday. With the bar set at world-record height, he missed three times, his final attempt the best but not quite good enough. Swirling winds and a new, longer pole proved to be obstacles.

“It could have been a lot better, for sure, but I had a bit of trouble figuring out my poles,” Duplantis said. “Sometimes it would be like a smokin’ tailwind. I should be able to adjust, but I’m not used to it right now. You don’t get that in stadiums in Europe. I was going through poles super quickly, and I was trying to adjust. I was using the biggest pole I have ever used, and I couldn’t control everything.”

Duplantis passed at 17-10 1/2, made his first attempt at 18-4 1/2, passed at 18-8 1/4 and made his first try at 19-0 1/4. Kendricks and Austin Miller both missed three times at 19-4 1/4, while Duplantis made it on his second attempt at the height. With victory assured, Duplantis had the bar raised to world-record height. It wasn’t to be.

“Sometimes (the wind) came up unbelievably good, and a few of the times it wasn’t as good,” he said. “I was really excited to use the pole on my last attempt, but it wasn’t as good wind as the first two attempts, which was unfortunate. And I ran out of time, too. I could feel that it could have been great.

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“But I learned a lot today. I love jumping in different environments, different types of set-ups. It is really important. You can’t just be over in Europe and do those competitions. This is a super awesome place to jump — crazy atmosphere and everything. But it takes some adjusting. I felt good. I felt I had some really good jumps today.”

Just not the big one.

Duplantis shared center stage with a number of athletes on the 50th anniversary of the Pre Classic, the ninth stop on the 15-meet world Diamond League circuit and the only one held on North American soil. With a sellout crowd of 12,606 rocking and rolling with the action, women’s distance runners provided a pair of world records. There were also seven meet records and seven 2025 world bests.

According to Jeff Oliver, Tracktown USA’s senior manager of partnerships/media operations, World Athletics ranked Saturday’s Pre Classic as the second-best invitational/open competition in history. No. 1 on the list? The 2023 Pre Classic, which was a two-day event serving as the Diamond League Final.

The event has been held annually since 1975, except in 2020, when it was canceled due to Covid. It has been at Hayward Field every year except 2019, when it was staged at Stanford due to reconstruction of the stadium at Hayward.

On Saturday, under clear skies with temperatures in the high 70s, Kenyans Beatrice Chabet and Faith Kipyegon ventured into uncharted waters, setting new standards in the 5,000 and 1,500, respectively.

A year ago at the Pre Classic, Chabet set a world record in the 10,000 at 28:54.14. This year, after running a personal-record 14:03.69 while winning a 5,000 in Rome on June 6, Chabet all but predicted a world-record run for Saturday’s race. She broke away over the final 400 to cruise to victory in 13:58.06, breaking the mark of 14:00.21 set by Gudaf Tsegay at the 2023 Pre Classic.

“In Rome, I was just running to win a race,” said Chebet, 25, the 2024 Olympic champion at 5,000 and 10,000 and the world record-holder now in both events. “But after running 14:03, I said that I am capable of running a world record. I said I have to try. I said, ‘If Faith is trying, why not me?’ ”

A week earlier in Paris, Kipyegon failed in a ballyhooed bid to become the first woman 4-miler. In a controlled time trial with Nike providing pacing and drafting support, Kipyegon finished in 4:06.42.

On Saturday, she came through with a brilliant performance, kicking home in 3:48.68 to better her old 1,500 record of 3:49.04 established last year in Paris.

“I said it was possible to run under 3:49,” said Kipyegon, 31, who also owns the world record in the mile. “I am just so grateful. It feels amazing.”

The Bowerman Mile is always a fan favorite, and Saturday’s race proved to be an upset special. Niels Laros of The Netherlands came from way back with a frantic kick to nip a fading Yared Nuguse at the tape. Laros, 20, finished in a world-best 3:45.94 while Nuguse was second in 3:45.95. Olympic 1,500 champion Cole Hocker finished fourth in a personal-record 3:47.43.

A year ago, Nuguse placed third behind Josh Kerr and Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the race, and in 2023 broke the American record at 3:43.97 here. On Saturday, he led most of the way and held a 15-meter margin around the final curve, but couldn’t hold off a fast-charging Laros, who won with a lean.

“Saying ‘winner of the Bowerman Mile’ doesn’t sound real to me right now,” said Laros, who as an 18-year-old placed ninth here in 2023 in 3:48.93. “I am just amazed at how the race went.”

Laros said his coach, Tomasz Lewandowski, told him prior to the race it would take a miracle to win.

“But then he said, ‘But you’re a special boy, so I wouldn’t be surprised,’ ” Laros said. “And he was right. I knew I could be close to this kind of time, but it is all about being the winner. That is what means the most.”

Over the years, there have been hundreds of 4-minute miles run, but perhaps never as many as Saturday. There were 15 runners who eclipsed the barrier in the Bowerman Mile and 11 who bettered it in an earlier “International Mile,” led by former North Carolina star Ethan Strand. In his first race after signing a professional contract with Nike, the 22-year-old Strand won in 3:48.93, just off the collegiate record of 3:48.32 he set indoors in February.

Much of my focus Saturday was on watching Duplantis, who owns an unbeaten streak that extends beyond two years. Since 2020, he has competed in 94 events and has won 90 times. The last time he was defeated was in a Diamond League meet in Monaco in June 2023, when he was dealing with a hamstring injury. Duplantis, who has cleared six meters (19-8 1/4) more than 100 times, has left his competitors vying for second place at every turn. Kendricks referred to him Saturday as the “G.O.A.T.”

“Mondo is stealing the show all the time,” Kendricks said, “but you’ve just got to keep fighting for it.”

I did a phone interview with Duplantis prior to the 2017 Pre Classic. He was already a good interview, wise beyond his years, and came from athletic stock. His father, Greg, was a world-class vaulter with a best of 19-0 1/4, an SEC champion at Louisiana State who went on to compete in four U.S. Olympic trials, finishing fifth in 1996. His mother, Swedish native Helena, was a heptathlete and volleyball player at LSU.

Their son was already known by "Mondo," a nickname bestowed upon him by friends as a young boy. In part it was an offshoot of his first name. In part it was because the word means "World," as in "world-class,” in Italian.

"I prefer 'Mondo' to 'Armand,' " he told me.

Armand owns dual U.S. and Swedish citizenship, and once he began international competition in 2015 — winning the World Youth Championships at Cali, Colombia, with a record 17-4 1/2 leap — he chose to represent Sweden. Part of the decision is based on the fact that Sweden chooses members of its national team, while U.S. athletes must finish in the top three at the national championship or Olympic Trials competition to advance to the World Championships or the Olympics.

"If you are sick or hurt on the day of the competition," his father told me, "you are out of luck."

The other part is that the Duplantis family often spent its summers in Sweden.

"Mondo has been competing for clubs in Sweden for about 10 years," Greg said in 2017. "The club system in Sweden is really good. They have a very advanced youth program that we've been using for years. Training revolves around peaking for a championship event, not for the qualifying rounds.”

Today, Mondo has residences both in Lafayette and Uppsala, wintering in Louisiana and spending his summers in Sweden.

Since 2017, the 5-11 Duplantis has put on 30 pounds and weighs 175, so he is much bigger than his father, who competed at 5-6 and 150. “I was the shortest guy to ever jump 19 feet,” Greg told me.

When we talked in 2017, I asked Mondo if an Olympic gold medal in 2020 at Tokyo was his ultimate goal.

"Well," he said, "2020 won't be my last Olympics, hopefully."

Covid delayed the Games by a year, but Duplantis got his gold. And then he did it again in 2024 in Paris, along the way winning two world championships, four Diamond League titles while setting a succession of world records.

Mondo was asked Saturday how high he thinks he can go.

“I don’t know,” he said. “You have to stay tuned, I guess. It is going to be a lot higher than it is now, that I am pretty confident of, but we just have to see.

“The nice thing about post-Olympic years is that you are able to be a bit more aggressive with the competitions and have a little fun with it.”

At 25, Duplantis isn’t yet at his peak physically. The great pole vaulter of the previous generation, Sergey Bubka of Ukraine, had most of his best marks after the age of 29. Lavillenie's world record was achieved in 2014 at 27. Time is on Mondo’s side for more world records, and some nice paydays.

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