STOCKHOLM, June 7 (Reuters) - Olympic champion Armand Duplantis fell short of his bid for a world record at the Stockholm Diamond League on Sunday, suffering a surprise defeat as Australia’s Kurtis Marschall clinched victory with a clearance of 5.90 metres on his third attempt.
The defeat ended a run of 40 straight victories for the 26-year-old, who admitted he had one eye on his upcoming wedding.
"It was time to lose, it was a very long time (since the last time). I can't fathom that I won 40 in a row, it's pretty sick, but it's also sick that I lose in Stockholm, which is the most important competition of the year for me," Duplantis told Swedish broadcaster SVT.
"This is not the last time I will lose, but I hope it's the last time I lose in Stockholm, I'm going to make sure of that, that it doesn't happen again."
Jumping in front of his home crowd, the hugely popular Duplantis was aiming to beat his previous best mark of 6.31 to break the record for the 16th time, but the day got off to a bad start when he hit the bar on his first attempt at 5.60.
The 26-year-old soared over that mark at the second attempt and looked to be back on track when he cruised over 5.80, but he failed in both attempts to clear six metres, and his last-ditch effort to clear 6.05 also came up short, which handed Marschall the victory. Duplantis finished in second place.
"You're either lucky in love or lucky in life, the wedding is soon, so maybe it's a huge silver lining to the whole thing," the Swede said. "It's a shame, because I really didn't want to have a bad performance here in Stockholm, where so many support me and give me love."
On the track, world champion Melissa Jefferson Wooden blazed to victory in the women’s 100 metres in a time of 10.84, while in the men's 200 metres American double Olympic silver medallist Kenny Bednarek cruised home first in a time of 19.87, the only athlete in the field to break the 20-second barrier.
In the men's 800m, 17-year-old American Cooper Lutkenhaus had one of the stand-out performances of the day when he notched a season-best time of 1:42.70 to win ahead of Marco Arop of Canada, with Algeria's Slimane Moula coming in third.
(Reporting by Philip O'Connor, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
