Duplantis loses at home and interrupts 40 consecutive winning streak
Olympic champion Armand Duplantis failed to break yet another world record in the Stockholm stage of the Diamond League this Sunday (7), suffering a surprising defeat to Australian Kurtis Marschall. He secured victory by surpassing the 5.90 meter mark on his third attempt.
The defeat ended a 40-fight winning streak for Duplantis, who admitted he had some of his attention focused on his marriage.
"It's about time I lost, it's been a long time (since the last time). I can't believe I've won 40 times in a row, that's impressive, but it's also hard to lose in Stockholm, which is the most important competition of the year for me," the 26-year-old told Swedish broadcaster "SVT".
"This won't be the last time I lose, but I hope it's the last time I lose in Stockholm. I'll make sure it doesn't happen again," he added.
Competing in front of his home crowd, Armand Duplantis was looking to surpass his own best of 6.31 meters to break the world record for the 16th time in his career. However, the day started badly when he dropped the batten on his first attempt at 5.60 meters.
The Swede surpassed this mark on the second attempt and seemed to have regained his pace by easily passing 5.80 meters. However, he failed in both attempts to exceed six meters and also failed to overcome 6.05 meters, which gave Marschall victory in the Diamond League. Duplantis finished second.
"Either you're lucky in love or you're lucky in life. The wedding is coming up, so maybe that's a big silver lining in this whole story. It's a shame, because I really didn't want to do badly here in Stockholm, where so many people support me and show me affection," joked the Swede.
In the track events, world champion Melissa Jefferson-Wooden won the 100 meter dash with a time of 10s84. In the men's 200 meters, North American Kenny Bednarek, two-time Olympic medalist, crossed the finish line first in 19.87.
In the 800 meters, American Cooper Lutkenhaus, just 17 years old, had one of the standout performances of the day when he recorded his best time of the season, with 1min42.70, winning ahead of Canadian Marco Arop, while Algerian Slimane Moula finished in third place.
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Source: CNN