PIX: Duplantis breaks own pole vault World record

Images from the Track and Field action at the Paris Olympics on Monday.

Sweden's Mondo Duplantis retained his Olympic pole vault title with ludicrous ease on Monday, needing only four successful attempts to take gold with 6.00 metres, then capped a memorable night by beating his own World record with a clearance of 6.25.

One of the hottest favourites of the entire athletics programme, he went above and beyond to the delight of the crowd.

Having seen off silver medallist American Sam Kendricks and Greece's bronze winner Emmanouil Karalis for the gold, he duly knocked off 6.10 at the first attempt to overhaul Thiago Braz's Olympic record 6.03 from the 2016 Rio Games.

With all other events finished, the capacity Stade de France crowd then focused fully on his bright yellow shirt and neon pink-lit pole frame as he tried to beat the world record of 6.24 he set in April.

The first two attempts were close but he slipped over and around the bar with incredible athleticism on the third, bringing a deafening roar from the 69,000 fans who had stayed to witness athletics history.

Still only 24, Duplantis is the world record holder, double Olympic, double world, triple European and double indoor world champion.

Around three hours earlier, the pole vault had been something of a sideshow to the track action as Duplantis entered the fray at 5.70 and promptly cleared it by about a metre.

He sat out 5.80 before flying easily over 5.85, as others all around him were starting to fall by the wayside.

He then cleared 6.00 – the ultimate target for most vaulters – as if he was warming up, and that was all he needed.

Kendricks, the 2017 and 2019 world champion and 2016 Olympic bronze medallist, missed the Tokyo Games after testing positive for COVID after his arrival and spoke this week about the turmoil he suffered as brands considered him "damaged goods".

The pent-up emotion exploded when he equalled his season’s best of 5.95, but he could not get over 6.00 metres with three attempts, leaving Duplantis as the winner on that height, without a fail.

Karalis, 24, cleared his personal best of 5.93 this season and was delighted to get over 5.90. His attempts at 5.95 and 6.00 never looked convincing but he was delighted with his bronze having finished joint-fourth in Tokyo.

It was Greece’s fourth bronze in the event but first since 1956, after a shared bronze in the first Games of 1896, when the winning height was 3.30 metres.

Kenya's Chebet charges to 5,000m gold, Kipyegon disqualified

Kenya's Beatrice Chebet won the gold medal in the women's Olympic 5,000 metres as she sprinted home to claim the title after a textbook performance on Monday, while her compatriot Faith Kipyegon was controversially disqualified.

Chebet won in a time of 14 minutes 28.56 seconds as the Netherlands' Sifan Hassan (14:30.61) claimed silver and Italian Nadia Battocletti took bronze (14:31.64).

Chebet produced a thrilling finish to win the first medal for her country at the Paris Olympics and smiled wide as she crossed the line after an exhausting performance.

World champion Kipyegon had finished second in 14:29.60 sbut was later disqualified.

The runner-up at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene and bronze medallist in Budapest last year, Chebet took the early lead and hung in with Kipyegon through much of the race.

She kept her cool as Kipyegon collided at the start of the penultimate lap with Ethiopian World record holder Gudaf Tsegay, who grimaced but continued, and accelerated from there.

Tokyo champion Hassan was in fifth place heading into the final 400 and dug deep to try to hang onto her Olympic crown, breaking into a sprint, but could not match the Kenyans' speed around the final turn.

Chebet hugged and cheered with Kipyegon as the pair donned Kenyan flags to wild cheers from the packed Stade de France.

It quickly became clear, however, that Kipyegon would not join her on the podium as her name disappeared from the results list and she was later marked disqualified, dissolving the joy.

Britain's Hodgkinson storms to 800m glory

Britain's Keely Hodgkinson delivered a command performance to win the gold medal in the 800 metres and claim her first global title.

Ethiopia's Tsige Duguma won silver in a stunning Olympic debut, with Kenya's Mary Moraa taking bronze.

The fastest in the world over the distance this year, 22-year-old Hodgkinson took the lead halfway through the first lap and comfortably held off an attack from Duguma to finish in one minute 56.72 seconds.

Hodgkinson had arrived in Paris on a high and was heavy favourite to win gold. She set a new personal best of 1:54.61s in London three weeks ago, a result that made her the sixth-fastest woman of all time over two laps.

She had tears in her eyes as she crossed the finish line and became the first Briton to win Olympic 800m gold since Kelly Holmes in 2004.

Hodgkinson won silver in Tokyo when she was just 19, and had high hopes of victory in Paris after also taking silver in the 2022 and 2023 World Championships.

For 23-year-old Duguma it was a stunning Olympic debut. She looked to be a threat to Hodgkinson with 200m to go, and pipped world champion Moraa to finish in 1:57.15, a personal best.

• THE OLYMPICS, 2024