Bubka's record fell. Swedish prodigy improved his technique and flew higher

Athletics is a conservative sport. Here they don’t change the rules every two years for the sake of a TV picture or viewers who suddenly ceased to understand the long-standing foundations. Perhaps this is due to the variability of disciplines – everyone will find something to their liking. Someone adores a hundred-meter race, someone sticks to a 50-kilometer run, someone is interested in overcoming in technical forms and the aura of inaccessibility – if everyone can run, just going out in a tracksuit, then jumping with a pole or throwing a disc is already the lot chosen and challenged by the laws of physics.

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But the atmosphere may have a minus – many world records have been held since the 20th century, and modern athletes are unable to overcome the old indicators. The one who succeeds, automatically receives the status of a legend, and after the era of the great Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, it was the turn of the 20-year-old Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis, who after 26 years swept the record of the Soviet-Ukrainian athlete Sergei Bubka. Back in 1994, Bubka flew 6.14 centimeters, and in the fall of 2020, Duplantis flew over the bar at an altitude of 6.15. Earlier, the Swede took the indoor record, and it is even higher – 6.18.

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Golden Gala

Bubka commented on Duplantis’ achievement that broke his record

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09/18/2020 at 08:22

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In total, Bubka set 35 world records, and he had no equal rivals: in fact, he was competing with himself. Duplantis has competitors: French veteran Renault Lavilleni, Russian athlete Timur Morgunov and Matvey Volkov, the 16-year-old son of Olympic vice-champion Konstantin Volkov, who plans to compete for Belarus due to the ARAF scandal.

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Bubka, 56, is confident that Duplantis will not stop at 6.15. In general, he very warmly perceived the achievement of the guy, with whose father, Greg Duplantis, he competed in his youth. The American who married the Swedish athlete Helene Hedlund never flew 6 meters, stopping at about 5.80, but his youngest son from the first attempts began to fly into heaven.

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Arman Duplantis

Фото: Getty Images

“It’s incredible, fantastic. As Vice President of World Athletics and an IOC member, my mission is to do everything for the prosperity of the younger generation. Armand is a great example. Looking at him, people will continue to practice athletics and pole vaulting. It’s great. He has a great personality and is polite to everyone, including opponents. This is very good for sports.

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He is purposeful, professional and loves his job very much. Shestovik needs to be quick to have developed gymnastic skills. These qualities were with me and, of course, he now has. He’s only 20, and many are wondering how high he can jump. I think about 6.20-6.25. I think it is already close, “- said Bubka in an interview. Expressen.

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Sergey Bubka

Фото: Getty Images

The Swedes are ready to carry in their arms their record holder – a puny young man who looks like Frodo Baggins from “The Lord of the Rings”. According to the heat of the publications, it seems that they have forgotten their eternal winter heroes, and at the traditional January awards ceremony for the best athletes of 2020, they will congratulate Duplantis, not skiers or biathletes.

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SVT reporters approached Alhaji Yeung, a Swedish track and field athlete of Gambian descent. He reviewed in slow motion the record jumps of Bubka and Duplantis and explained, what is the difference and why the young Mondo, as he is called at home and in his native country, jumped one centimeter higher.

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“If we look at Sergei’s left arm, we will notice a slight bend, and Armand’s arm is fully extended. This gives him the opportunity to push off 15 centimeters later. Sergei works in the pendulum phase, his foot is behind the thigh and remains there throughout the entire jump. Armand groups up differently and pushes off with both feet, so he gets another advantage.

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If you mentally draw a line when they are in an inverted position, you can see that Armand’s head is really parallel to the pole. Sergei’s head is slightly tilted. And the jumper should fly out like a projectile, the body should be as straight and rigid as possible. Armand’s body looks like a straight line, it is coupled with the force generated by the pole. He took it to another level because he worked so hard.

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You need to learn from those who have been before and add something of your own. Pole vaulting is an extremely smart sport, ”the expert concluded.

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It turns out that Duplantis and his father examined Bubka’s technique under a microscope, pumped it over and brought it to perfection. It’s hard to expect anything different from a guy who made the first jump onto the couch with a mop and trained in quarantine in the backyard of his own house.

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Bubka set his long-term record at 31, and at 20 he had not yet reached six meters. So Duplantis has a very large supply that will accelerate the natural development of athletics.