World records set indoors earlier this year by Mondo Duplantis and Femke Bol have now been ratified.
Other recently ratified marks include Emane Seifu’s women-only 50km world record, Mika Sosna’s world U20 discus record from 2022, and Kaila Jackson’s equalling of the world U20 indoor 60m record.
Duplantis, the world and Olympic pole vault champion, enjoyed another undefeated indoor campaign this year. Following victories in Uppsala, Berlin and Lievin, the 23-year-old from Sweden headed to Clermont-Ferrand for his final competition of the indoor season.
He opened his series with a first-time clearance at 5.71m, got over 5.91m on his second try, then popped over 6.01m with his first jump at that height. With the competition won, Duplantis raised the bar to 6.22m. After a couple of close attempts, he successfully cleared it on his third try, sailing over the bar with room to spare.
His winning mark added a centimetre to his previous world record, set at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 on 24 July 2022.
Just six days prior, Bol had entered the record books with a blistering run over 400m.
The world 400m hurdles silver medallist, who had broken the 50-second barrier with 49.96 in her first 400m outing of the indoor season, produced her record run at the Dutch Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn.
Pushed by training partner Lieke Klaver, Bol went through the first lap in the lead in 23.63. With a clear run to the finish, she held her form well and crossed the line in 49.26, taking 0.33 off the previous world indoor record set by Jarmila Kratochvilova in Milan on 7 March 1982.
There was a third world record set in February, thanks to the unheralded Emane Seifu.
The Ethiopian won the 50km at the Nedbank Runified Breaking Barriers Ultramarathon in 3:00:30, taking almost four minutes off the previous women-only record of 3:04:24, set by South Africa’s Irvette van Zyl in Port Elizabeth on 23 May 2021.
Seifu maintained a steady pace throughout, going through 10km in 36:09 before reaching the half-way mark in 1:30:28. She went through the marathon checkpoint in 2:32:21 and completed the race with a negative split for the second half.
Just last month, 18-year-old Kaila Jackson sped to a lifetime best of 7.07 in the heats of the 60m at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, equalling the world U20 indoor record set by Ewa Swoboda in Torun on 12 February 2016.
One day later, Jackson came close to that mark with a 7.08 clocking to finish second in the NCAA indoor final.
Mika Sosna made history last year with his world U20 record in the men’s discus (1.75kg implement). The German thrower sent his disc out to 71.37m at a competition in Schoenebeck, adding more than a metre to the previous record set in Halle by Ukraine’s Mykyta Nesterenko on 24 May 2008.
Credit: World Athletics
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