The men's pole vault at the 2025 World Athletics Championships was held at the National Stadium in Tokyo on 13 and 15 September 2025.
Summary Armand Duplantis entered the competition as the favourite, having won every major championship, from 2020 onwards. The field also included Emmanouil Karalis, who moved into the #4 position of all time with a 6.08m clearance earlier in the year, Sam Kendricks, the only man to beat Duplantis at a major championship, at the 2019 Championships when Duplantis was 19. Even former world record holder, about to turn 39, Renaud Lavillenie was present. It took 5.75 in the qualifying round to make the final.
Eight men were still vaulting at 5.90m, Lavillenie having passed 5.85m to get there. Karalis, Kurtis Marschall, Thibaut Collet, Sondre Guttormsen and Menno Vloon cleared on their first attempts. Duplantis had already passed. After Kendricks and Lavillenie missed, they passed to 5.95m with nothing to gain at 5.90m. Duplantis cleared 5.95m on his first attempt, still with a clean round. Marschall cleared on his second attempt, setting a personal best. Kendricks' strategy paid off when he cleared on his second attempt, but with that miss at 5.90m, he was in third place. On his third attempt, Karalis was the only other one over 5.95m. At six meters, Karalis then Duplantis cleared. Both men passed 6.05m. At 6.10m, twenty feet, Karalis had a narrow miss. Duplantis sailed over the bar. Karalis walked over to the official to pass to 6.15m where he became only the fourth man to attempt the height. After he missed Duplantis flew over the bar and the cycle repeated. Now Karalis would be the only other person to attempt 6.20m. Karalis made a credible attempt but the bar came down making Duplantis the winner. This time he would walk to the official to pass to a new world record 6.30m. The crowd got to see a couple of rarities, first with Duplantis missing twice in a row. Then, after the long wait, on his final attempt, with a little brush on the way up, Duplantis cleared. It was his 14th World Record which he first celebrated with the camaraderie of other vaulters.
Records Before the competition records were as follows:
RecordAthlete & LocationDate World Record 6.29 m Budapest. Hungary 12 August 2025 Championship Record6.21 m Eugene, United States 24 July 2022 World Leading6.29 m Budapest. Hungary 12 August 2025 African Record 6.03 mCologne, Germany 18 August 1995 Asian Record 6.00 m Bergen, Norway 10 June 2023European Record6.29 mBudapest. Hungary12 August 2025 North, Central American and Caribbean Record 6.07 m Nashville, United States 2 June 2023 South American Record 6.03 m Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 15 August 2016 Oceanian Record 6.06 m (i) Boston, United States 7 February 2009
Qualification standard The standard to qualify automatically for entry was 5.82 m.
Schedule The event schedule, in local time (UTC+9), was as follows:
Date Time Round 13 September 19:05 Qualification 15 September 19:49 Final
Results Qualification All athletes over 5.80 m ( Q ) or at least the 12 best performers ( q ) advanced to the final.
Group A Place Athlete Nation 5.40 5.55 5.70 5.75 Mark Notes 1 Emmanouil Karalis o o5.75 1 Sam Kendricks o o o 5.75 1 Armand Duplantis o o 5.75 1 Sondre Guttormsen o o o o 5.75 5 Kurtis Marschall o o xo o 5.75 6 Bo Kanda Lita Baehre xo xo o o 5.75 , 7 Renaud Lavillenie o xxo xo 5.75 8 Ersu Şaşma xxo xxo 5.75 9 Ben Broeders o o xo xxx 5.70 10 Hussain Asim Al Hizam xo xo xxo xxx 5.70 11 Ernest John Obiena o xx x 5.55 11 Matěj Ščerba o o xxx 5.55 12 Simone Bertelli xo o xxx 5.55 14 Valters Kreišs o xxo xxx 5.55 14 Austin Miller o xxo xxx 5.55 16 Simen Guttormsen o xxx 5.40 Kyle Rademeyer xxx Urho Kujanpää xxx
Group B Place Athlete Nation 5.40 5.55 5.70 5.75 Mark Notes 1 Menno Vloon o o xo o 5.75 2 Ethan Cormont o o xxo o 5.75 3 Thibaut Collet xo o xo 5.75 4 Seif Heneida o xo xo xxo 5.75 , 5 David Holý o o o xxx 5.70 6 Piotr Lisek o o xxx 5.70 7 Matt Ludwig o xo o xxx 5.70 8 Oleksandr Onufriyev o o xxx 5.55 9 Li Chenyang xo o xxx 5.55 10 Oleg Zernikel xxo xo xxx 5.55 11 Márton Böndör o xxx 5.40 11 Artur Coll o xxx 5.40 11 Zhong Tao o xxx 5.40 14 Torben Blech xo xxx 5.40 14 Ioannis Rizos xo xxx 5.40 Huang Bokai xxx Ricardo Montes de Oca xxx Matteo Oliveri xxx
Final
Place Athlete Nation 5.55 5.75 5.85 5.90 5.95 6.00 6.05 6.10 6.15 6.20 6.30 Mark Notes Armand Duplantis o – o – o o – o o – xxo6.30 Emmanouil Karalis – o – o xxo o – x– x– x 6.00 Kurtis Marschall o o o o xo xxx 5.95 4 Sam Kendricks o o o x– xo xxx 5.95 5 Thibaut Collet xo o o o xx– x 5.90 6 Sondre Guttormsen o xxo xo o x– xx 5.90 7 Menno Vloon o xxo xxo o x– xx 5.90 8 Renaud Lavillenie – o – x– xx 5.75 9 Seif Heneida o xo xxx 5.75 10 Bo Kanda Lita Baehre o xxo xxx 5.75 11 Ethan Cormont xo xxx 5.55 Ersu Şaşma xxx
References