The world's top pole vaulters held a lockdown tournament in their own back yards, and one said it was as exciting as a major championship
- Three of the world's top pole vaulters held a lockdown tournament in their own back yards on Sunday.
- Armand "Mondo" Duplantis, Sam Kendricks and Renaud Lavillenie faced off in the Ultimate Garden Clash while over 900,000 people watched online.
- "It's crazy, but even doing this in my garden, I get the same feeling I'd get at a major championships," Lavillenie said, according to ESPN: "It was very exciting, and I'm very happy to be a part of it.''
- World Athletics president Sebastian Coe called the competition a "brilliant initiative."
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With the Tokyo Olympics having been delayed until 2021, and everyone stuck at home, three of the world's top pole vaulters decided to take matters into their own hands by a holding a lockdown tournament in their own back yards.
On Sunday, Armand "Mondo" Duplantis, Sam Kendricks and Renaud Lavillenie pitted off in the Ultimate Garden Clash with over 900,000 people watching across Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
Each vaulter was charged with the task of clearing a five-meter bar as many times as possible over a span of 30 minutes. Five meters is pretty low in the grand scheme of elite pole vaulting, with world record-holder Duplantis having cleared a bar 6.18 meters high to break the record.
Duplantis and Lavillenie, the 2012 Olympic champion, both cleared the height 36 times, while the USA's Sam Kendricks, a multiple time world champion, managed to do so 26 times.
Watch the full contest below.
Speaking after, Lavillenie said, according to ESPN: "It's crazy, but even doing this in my garden, I get the same feeling I'd get at a major championships. It was very exciting, and I'm very happy to be a part of it.''
Duplantis, 20, added: "It was really fun being out there competing against those guys. I had really missed competing. I didn't think it was going to end in a tie, but that's sports!"
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe was among the viewers, and the 63-year-old was full of praise for the trio after.
"This is a brilliant initiative, great fun and really innovative,'' Coe said in a statement on the World Athletics website.
"My thanks go to them, their families and the World Athletics team for bringing live athletics back during lockdown. I hope we can bring a few more events like this to bring to all athletics fans out there.''
Coe, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in 1980 and 1984, also tweeted: "So proud of these guys, should have been a pole vaulter!"
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