Swedish star Armand Duplantis fell narrowly short of setting a third pole vault world record in 12 days at the indoor event in Lievin, France on Wednesday.
The 20-year-old soared over 6.07 metres to win the competition ahead of American world champion Sam Kendricks (5.90m), but failed to clear 6.19m from three attempts.
Duplantis cleared 6.18m in Glasgow last weekend and 6.17m earlier this month in Poland to break Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie’s six-year-old world record.
He came close to increasing his mark in northern France, seeing the bar agonisingly drop on his second effort.
“My legs abandoned me a bit,” said Duplantis.
American Sandi Morris also surprisingly attempted a new women’s indoor pole vault world record of 5.03m, but came up short, settling for victory with 4.83m.
“Two simultaneous world-record attempts are something we will probably never see again,” added Duplantis.
“It was a very cool moment even if we didn’t succeed.”
Duplantis will bid for his third record again on Sunday in Clermont in an event organised by Lavillenie.
“Now, I have no energy, but on Sunday I’ll be fine. I can’t promise anything, but I’ll make sure I don’t miss the competition,” he said.
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