After an explosive start in Asia and Africa, the Wanda Diamond League season headed west to Europe and the USA in June and early July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the world’s biggest names, meetings in Stockholm, Paris and Eugene meant more chances to strut their stuff ahead and get in championship-winning shape ahead of the World Championships in Tokyo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They did just that, as the season really took off with a flurry of world records to mark the halfway stage of the campaign. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prior to the 2025 outdoor season, Mondo Duplantis had broken the pole vault world record 11 times, in eight different cities and at three different Wanda Diamond League meetings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was a two-time Olympic gold medallist, a four-time Diamond League champion and on the verge of claiming his fourth world title. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet there was one major prize which still eluded the Swedish sensation: a world record at his home Diamond League meeting in Stockholm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Duplantis had soared in Stockholm before, breaking Diamond League records and setting new outdoor world bests at the 1912 Olympic Stadium. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet it wasn’t until 2025 that he finally ticked the world record off his Stockholm bucket list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Duplantis had rattled through to victory with a perfect card, reaching a winning 6.00m in just four jumps. Yet when he set the bar at a world record height of 6.28m, few expected him to clear it first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not for the first time, the Swede defied expectations, hopping over the bar as if it were a country stile and delivering the home crowd the world record they so desperately craved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI feel full to the brim right now,\u201d said Duplantis. \u201cI\u2019ve got a lot of family here. The first time I jumped in this stadium when I was 11 years old, it was rainy and cold, and I jumped right under four metres \u2013 it was quite high for how young I was.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was the first of three world records he would break that year, in a run which reached its climax when he finally broke the 6.30m mark at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo last month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Duplantis’ heroics were the highlight of an extraordinary afternoon in Stockholm, with no fewer than seven meeting records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fellow Swede Andreas Almgren landed a stunning victory in the men’s 5000m, while Julien Alfred followed up her win in Oslo with another impressive 10.75 in the women’s 100m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rai Benjamin claimed a statement win over Karsten Warholm and Alison Dos Santos in the men’s 400m hurdles, and there were also meeting records for Grace Stark in the 100m hurdles and Tara Davis-Woodhall in the long jump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n