Only Mondo Duplantis has gone higher than the Greek athlete after great performance at his national champs in Athens.
Emmanouil Karalis next head to head with Mondo Duplantis will be highly anticipated after the Greek pole vaulter cleared 6.17m at his national championships in Paiania, Athens, on Saturday (Feb 28).
It is a height only Duplantis has beaten with his 6.30m world record, which was set at the World Championships in Tokyo last September.
“Manolo” Karalis, as he is called, is the reigning European indoor champion and now the No.2 vaulter in history after beating the best vaults by athletes such as Renaud Lavillenie and Sergey Bubka.
His PB before this weekend was 6.08m from 2025.
The 26-year-old had cleared a world lead of 6.07m on his first attempt, but put the bar up to 6.17m, going over at his second attempt, before later making two attempts at a 6.31m world record.
“I don’t know what’s going on guys! I’m living a dream, don’t wake me up!” he said. “I’m very happy. I managed to make one of my dreams come true here in Paiania, the home of athletics.”
Jumping in front of around 2500 spectators, he added: “I’m happy. All the people I love came, they were here and… yes, right now I just can’t believe what’s happened, because I’m chasing the next one. But I’m fine. I have a team that believes in me a lot, sometimes more than I do.
“Okay, I didn’t jump (at 6.31m) because I was tired, but I set the bar for a world record, so I’m happy about that. I can’t imagine at all that I surpassed Sergey Bubka and Renaud Lavillenie. It was definitely something I always wanted to do, we believed in it, I said it to myself, but achieving it is something very great.”
Karalis and Duplantis are due to meet for the first time this year at the Mondo Classic in Uppsala, Sweden, on March 12 ahead of the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Torun from March 20-22.