Mondo Duplantis wins Hengelo pole vault with new 2022 world lead clearance

Mondo Duplantis looks in unstoppable form already.

With six weeks to the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, USA, the Swedish pole vault Olympic champion is ramping up with ever-higher clearances.

On Monday (6 June) in Hengelo, Netherlands, the world record holder overcame wet, cold, and rainy conditions at the FBK Games Continental Tour Gold meet to set a new 2022 world lead of 6.01 metres to overtake Christopher Nilsen, the Olympic silver medalist, as the world leader.

Duplantis was never really tested by his rivals, and despite the dreary weather conditions looked in good nick, not once failing in any of his four attempts at 5.50, 5.70, 5.80, then 6.01 metres.

Indeed, the Swede was the only man to even clear 5.80, as home vaulter Rutger Koppelaar and Belgium's Ben Broeders both missed out at that height.

Duplantis was one of a number of stars on show in Hengelo, which attracted some big names.

Yohan Blake of Jamaica won the men's 100m in 10.11 seconds, while Great Britain's Daryll Neita took the women's race in 11.19 into a headwind.

Kenya's Faith Kipyegon scored her season's best time in the women's 800m by winning in 2:00.36, while in the men's javelin, Grenada's Anderson Peters – who has already cleared a mammoth 93m this season – went beyond the 90m mark again with a 90.75m to break the 36-year-old meeting record.

Olympic champ Peruth Chemutai of Uganda won the women's 3000m steeplechase in 9:14.00 flat, while Germany's Malaika Mihambo, also a Tokyo 2020 champ, clinched victory in the women's long jump with a 6.65m effort.