Duplantis breaks pole vault record in Stockholm

Armand Duplantis broke the men's pole vault world record for a 12th time with a clearance of 6.28m at the Diamond League meeting in Stockholm.

This one was extra special for the 25-year-old, however, as it was the first time he had improved the world best in Sweden.

Born in the United States, Duplantis - who is commonly known by his nickname 'Mondo' - represents his mother's native country.

He had already secured victory in the event when he cleared the new record height at the first attempt before removing his vest, celebrating with friends and family, and taking the acclaim of his home crowd.

Speaking before the event,, external double Olympic champion Duplantis said breaking the world record in Stockholm "felt like the only thing missing" and "kind of a thing I can't get off my mind".

He first broke the world record, then held by Renaud Lavillenie of France, in February 2020 with a 6.17m clearance in Poland.

On a memorable evening for the home crowd in the Swedish capital, Andreas Almgren set a European record to win the men's 5,000m.

There was also British success on the track as Georgia Hunter-Bell finished strongly to claim victory in the women's 800m in a time of 1:57.66.

Olympic 1500m bronze medallist Hunter-Bell was last with 200m to go but overhauled all of her competitors, including world champion Mary Moraa, with a sensational sprint finish.

Britain's world indoor champion Amber Anning was third in the women's 400m in a season's best of 50.17 seconds, while Dina Asher-Smith ran 10.93 seconds to finish second behind Olympic champion Julien Alfred in the women's 100m.

British duo Innes Fitzgerald and Hannah Nuttall smashed their personal bests to finish third and fourth respectively in the women's 3,000m, which was won by Australian Linden Hall.

Fitzgerald, 19, ran 8:32.90 to beat her fastest mark by more than seven seconds, while 27-year-old Nuttall finished in 8:33.82, more than six seconds quicker than her previous best.

Fitzgerald said: "I went into the race with no expectations and I think that is the best way to race. Sometimes I have let the pressure get to me a little bit, but today I was relaxed and I was determined to enjoy it. I absolutely loved every minute of it.

"This gives me so much confidence going forward. It shows where I belong and hopefully I can get into the big championship races.

"I am back to training now as it is a long season. I just want to drop the times in the 5,000m and 3,000m and see where it takes me."

George Mills was fifth in the 1500m, just three days after breaking Sir Mo Farah's British 5,000m record in Oslo.

"Obviously I was looking for the win, but I came here on the back of a very good 5,000m in Oslo so I did what I came to do, which was to run fast with only a short recovery," said Mills, who finished in 3:32.67, just over a second behind winner Samuel Pihlstrom of Sweden.

"It worked pretty well until the last lap or so when the legs started to get heavy, but I think it was a good couple of days' work.

"I now have just a few days to get recovered for Paris on Friday. This is all part of the plan of getting races in a short period of time."

Femke Bol of the Netherlands broke her own meeting record to win the women's 400m hurdles in 52.11 seconds, while Kenya's Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi ran 1:41.95 - the fastest time in the world this year - to win the men's 800m.

In a star-studded final race, Rai Benjamin of the United States got the better of Brazil's Alison dos Santos and Norway's world record holder Karsten Warholm to win the men's 400m hurdles in 46.54 seconds.