How is technology helping Duplantis break world records?

Armand Duplantis broke the men’s pole vault world at the Tokyo World Athletics Championships on Monday – but how does technology help him beat his rivals?

The 25-year-old smashed the world record for a 14th time in his career and he has credited his runway speed for giving him the edge over his competitors.

Duplantis takes 20 steps down the runway and can reach 10.3 metres per second at the point of take-off.

By comparison, other male pole vaulters might hit 9.4-9.7m/s.

Fans also noticed Duplantis putting on a pair of specially-adapted spikes ahead of his latest world record attempt.

The trainers, also worn by three-time 400m hurdles world champion Karsten Warholm, have a hooked spike added to the toe at the front.

The Swedish superstar does not wear the trainers for every attempt after cutting his arm on the tip of the spike in past events.

The shoes have now been adapted to add a rubber end, but Duplantis says he only uses the technology when trying to break the world record.

In Tokyo, he also used a stiffer pole for the third attempt at 6.30m to help give him extra elevation.

“Whenever I think that I have a chance to break world records. I do bring out the claw,” he said.

“I would use it every single time if it wasn’t for the fact that I sometimes catch my hands on the inversion part of the jump.

“If you ever see there’s blood on me, it’s because of that.

Advancements in shoe technology have helped topple a number of world records in athletics since carbon fibre footwear became readily available.

Governing bodies have been trying to keep pace with advances in footwear technology and World Athletics updated their regulations in January 2022.

It stated shoes could not be used unless they were available to “any athletes participating in applicable competitions”, while it also had technical requirements for the thickness of the sole.

Since then records have continued to be broken. The women’s marathon world record has been broken four times since September 2023.

In the men’s event, nine out of the 10 fastest marathons in history have been run by athletes wearing carbon shoes.

Advances in technology have also been benefitting track athletes with a recent study by the University of Massachusetts claiming that Usain Bolt would have run 100m in 9.42 seconds in a pair of ‘super-spikes’.

Bolt still holds the men’s 100m world record of 9.58 seconds at the 2009 world championships in Berlin.

“Someone who continued after I retired was Shelly-Anne Fraser-Pryce and I saw what she did – she got faster with the spikes,” said Bolt ahead of Tokyo.

“I probably would have run way faster if I’d continued and if I knew that spikes would have got to that level maybe I would have, because it would have been great to compete at that level and running that fast.”

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