Birmingham (United Kingdom) (AFP) - Olympic pole vault champion Armand Duplantis fell just short in his bid to set a new world record at the Birmingham Grand Prix on Saturday.
The Swede had three attempts at 6.19 metres, one centimetre higher than his own world record of 6.18m set in Glasgow two years ago.
Duplantis came closest with this third attempt, just brushing the bar, to his evident frustration.
Duplantis had already won the competition by clearing 6.05m, well ahead of Brazil's Thiago Braz, the 2016 Olympic gold medallist, who cleared 5.81m.Ben Broeders of Belgium finished third in 5.71m.
'Mixed emotions'
After Braz failed three times at 5.91m, Duplantis raised the bar to 6.05m -- a height he cleared at the third attempt.
He then increased the height to 6.19m only to fall short
"I've got mixed emotions," said Duplantis.
"6.05m is a good jump and result but I really wanted that 6.19m.
"I have expectations of myself and I know there are good conditions indoors so I can break the world record, I want it so badly," the 22-year-old added.
Earlier, five-time Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah won the women's 60 metres.
The Jamaican, who at last year's Tokyo Games retained her 100m and 200m titles, won in 7.08 seconds.
"It's a good win and although I wanted to go under seven seconds, I'm good," said Thompson-Herah, who is next scheduled to compete n Torun, Poland on Tuesday.
"It's part of my training process and I'm still thinking about the World Indoors (in Belgrade next month)," the 29-year-old added.
In the men's 60m, Britain's Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake failed to make the final, finishing seventh in his heat a day after it was announced he had been stripped of the 4x100m relay silver he won in Tokyo due to team-mate CJ Ujah's failed drugs test.
Noah Lyles, the world 200m champion outdoors, led a United States clean sweep of the podium in the final.
Lyles won in 6.55 seconds, with the second-placed Ronnie Baker given the same time.Elijah Hall was third in 6.56 seconds.
Britain's Tokyo Olympic silver-medallist Keely Hodgkinson set a new national record winning the women's 800m.
The 19-year-old, in her first race since September, finished clear of the field in a time of one minute 57.20 seconds to surpass Jemma Reekie's British record of 1:57.91.
Her time was the quickest indoor 800m since the world record of 1:55.82 was set by Jolanda Ceplak at the European Indoor Championships in Vienna on March 3, 2002, the day Hodgkinson was born.
"It's a bit weird!" said Hodgkinson.
"I want to rewrite the history books but that world record is going to take some getting to.
