Zurich (AFP)

Swedish pole vaulter Armand "Mondo" Duplantis (6.06 m), close to the world record, and Russian Anzhelika Sidorova (5.01 m) took pride of place in a gigantic athletics festival during the finals of the Zurich Diamond League Thursday.

Funny white sausages are dispatched on the lawn of the magnificent Letzigrund stadium, tearing a smile from the Swede about to set off for his winning jump to 6.06 m.

In the midst of these artificial clouds, Armand Duplantis had the more than 20,000 spectators all to himself at the end of the meeting, the high point of the major circuit of athletics competitions.

In the din, he narrowly failed to pass 6.19m to beat his own world record (6.18m in 2020).

This pole vault prodigy, aged only 21, still showed why he had crushed the season with 10 wins (2 losses), eight competitions over 6 meters and a first Olympic title acquired in Tokyo a year ago. little over a month.

His opponents were strong (Sam Kendricks and Timur Morgunov passed 5.93m), but a tone below the new king of the pole, called to reign for many years.

Armand Duplantis embraced by the American Sam Kendricks during the pole vault competition in Zurich, September 9, 2021 Fabrice COFFRINI AFP

In the heart of an orgy of athletics (25 events in a little less than four hours), and in an unreal atmosphere compared to the closed doors of Tokyo a month earlier, the female pole vault had started a little earlier to make Sparks.

The Russian Anzhelika Sidorova became the 4th pole vaulter to do better than the symbolic height of 5 m by crossing 5.01 m.

- "It's crazy" -

Before her, only her compatriot Yelena Isinbayeva (world record at 5.06m in 2009) and the Americans Sandi Morris (5m in 2016) and Jennifer Suhr (5.03m indoors in 2016) had already exceeded 5m.

Russian pole vaulter Anzhelika Sidorova savoring her triumph at the Diamond League finals in Zurich, September 9, 2021 Fabrice COFFRINI AFP

"I can't believe it, it's crazy! I can't explain it because when I was in the warm-up I didn't feel so good. I'm in good shape today, because that I felt tired, it was hard. I do not know what happened! I think it is the public, it is wonderful ", she appreciated.

On the straight line, Jamaican Elaine Thompson-Herah continued to trivialize the exceptional with a fourth fastest time under 10 sec 70 this summer, a feat never achieved, after running in 10 sec 61 in Tokyo at the Olympics, 10 sec 54 at Eugene (2nd performance in history) on August 21 and 10 sec 64 in Lausanne on August 26.

In 10 sec 65 (+0.6 m / s of wind), 10th fastest time in history, the reigning double Olympic champion in the 100 m far outstripped the Briton Dina Asher-Smith (10.87) on Thursday, in the absence of her great rival Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

Elaine Thompson-Herah untouchable in the 100m during the athletics season finals in Zurich, September 9, 2021 Fabrice COFFRINI AFP

Only the world record of the sulphurous American Florence Griffith-Joyner (10 sec 49 in 1988) still resists her.

In the triple jump the Venezuelan Olympic champion Yulimar Rojas logically won with a test at 15.48 m, close to her world record set in Tokyo (15.67 m).

For the first regrouping of the Diamond League finals on a single meeting, the organizers of Zurich provided the final show with a long lap of honor of the winners then a show-concert-fireworks including an astonishing piece of rap in Swiss-German.

© 2021 AFP