2022 was a year of blue and yellow brilliance as Ukraine's Yaroslava Mahuchikh and Sweden's Armand "Mondo" Duplantis both scaled historic new heights on the road to the Wanda Diamond League Final. In the fourth part of our "Best of 2022" series, we take a look back at two of the biggest jumps of the year in the high jump and pole vault.
Duplantis delights Stockholm
After launching his campaign with consummate victories in Doha and Eugene, Mondo Duplantis was already top of the standings and well on his way to a place in the Wanda Diamond League Final when he rocked up in Stockholm in June, but that didn't mean the pressure was off.
The Swedish pole vault superstar - whose devotion to the blue and yellow is so strong that he once insisted Swedish chocolate was superior to Belgian chocolate at a Diamond League press conference - admitted ahead of his home meeting that the Bauhaus Galan was a major milestone in his 2022 campaign. "For me, it's like the second most important competition of the year after World Championships," he said.
But Duplantis is a man who thrives on pressure, and a year after breaking the meeting record with 6.02m at the same meeting, he went one better with a breathtaking 6.16m in front of an adoring home crowd at Stockholm's Olympic stadium. A Diamond League record and, at the time, the highest ever outdoor jump in men's pole vault history, it was a performance which put him in perfect stead for a brilliant World Championships in Oregon, where he became the first man to break the world record outdoors since 1994.
