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Kurtis Marschall was thrilled to win bronze for Australia, thrilled to watch on as super Swede Mondo Duplantis broke his own world record and thrilled to be part of one of the greatest pole vault competitions ever.
There was a lot to take in.
Duplantis already had a third successive world championships title in his keeping after powering over at 6.15m in Tokyo on Monday night .
Ever the showman, he then had the bar raised to 6.30m and cleared it at the third and final attempt to the delight of a capacity crowd that had stayed on to watch after all other events had finished.
No-one was happier than his close friend Marschall, who had earlier equalled his personal best of 5.95m, which was good enough to pocket Australia’s first medal of the championships.
The 28-year-old then had three unsuccessful cracks at 6m, a barrier only three Australians have ever cleared – former world champs Steve Hooker and Dmitri Markov and Marschall’s coach Paul Burgess.
But Duplantis is at another level altogether.
The 25-year-old now has three world titles to go with his 2020 and 2024 Olympic golds and 14 world records.
“It’s outrageous,” said Marschall.
“We all knew Mondo was going to do at the third attempt, it’s like it was guaranteed pretty much.
“Just icing on the cake, miracle stuff, fairytale stuff and to be a part of that is so cool.”
Winning a second successive world championships bronze medal was pretty cool too, even if came with the caveat that he was 35cm shy of Duplantis.
“It’s tough knowing that I just got pumped tonight, but I jumped the best I ever have against some of the best guys in the world on the biggest stage I’ve ever jumped on, other than the Olympics,” said Marschall.
“It’s a tough pill to swallow but just to be a part of this generation of pole vaulters is so sick and I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
There were still plenty of positives for Marschall, who produced the best series of jumps of his career.
“I’m super happy with how I performed,” he said.
“Going clean through 5.90m, I’ve never done that before and that’s what you’ve got to do at a championships.
“To put myself in the mix the whole way, keep the pressure on, keep the foot to the floor, pedal to the metal, that’s the way you’ve got to go about it.”
No one has got closer to the virtually-untouchable Duplantis in 2025 than Greek Emmanouil Karalis and that was again the case.
Karalis took home the silver with 6m, but like Marschall — and everyone else — he was nowhere near the gold medallist.
Elsewhere in the National Stadium, Australian Liam Adcock came up just short in his bid to qualify for the men’s long jump final.
Adcock, the 2025 world indoor bronze medallist, was sitting just inside the top 12 qualifiers after his final-round effort of 7.94m, but a couple of other jumpers went past him and he finished in 14th spot overall.
Countryman Chris Mitrevski (7.83m) also failed to advance, with 2019 world champ Tajay Gayle from Jamaica (8.28m) leading the qualifiers into Wednesday’s final.
The best performance of the night from an Oceania athlete came from New Zealander Geordie Beamish, who was a shock winner of the men’s steeplechase in eight minutes 33.88 seconds.
With Australian two-time world champ and London Olympics gold medallist Sally Pearson watching from the stands, there was also a boilover in the women’s 100m hurdles.
Ditaji Kambundji won in a Swiss record of 12.24 seconds ahead of world record holder Tobi Amusan from Nigeria and American Grace Stark.
Canadian Camryn Rogers won a second successive women’s hammer throw world title with a best throw of 80.51m.
