Pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis made history at the Rome Diamond league meet yesterday, breaking Sergey Bubka’s 26-year-old outdoor world record when he cleared 6.15 meters on his second attempt. That’s 20 feet 2 inches.
Bubka set the outdoor record of 6.14 meters (20 feet, 1½ inches) in July 1994 in Sestriere, Italy.
Although he attended LSU, Duplantis competes under the Swedish flag because his mother, Helena, is a native of Sweden.
With the record, Duplantis becomes one of the legends of the pole vault, along with Cornelius Warmerdam, Bob Seagran and Atascadero’s Jan Johnson. Johnson once held the world indoor record for the pole vault. Jan won a bronze medal at the Olympics in Munich in 1972.
His daughter, Chelsea Johnson graduated from Atascadero high school. Chelsea won the silver medal at the world championships in Berlin in 2009.
