Only Mondo Duplantis is higher than the Greek athlete after his excellent performances at his national championships in Athens.
Emmanuel Karalis’ next meeting with Mondo Duplantis will be hotly anticipated after the Greek pole vaulter cleared 6.17m at his national championships in Paiania in Athens on Saturday (February 28).
It is a height that only Duplantis has surpassed with his world record of 6.30m set at the world championships in Tokyo last September.
“Manolo” Karalis, as he is called, is the reigning European indoor champion and now the No. 2 runner in history, beating the best jumpers of athletes such as Renaud Lavilleni and Sergey Bubka.
His PB up to this weekend was 6.08m from 2025.
The 26-year-old had cleared the world mark of 6.07m on his first attempt, but took the height to 6.17m on his second attempt before attempting twice for the world record of 6.31m.
“I don’t know what’s going on guys, I’m living a dream, don’t wake me up!” he said “I am very happy, I managed to fulfill one of my dreams here at the home of athletics, Paiania.”
Jumping in front of an audience of about 2,500, he added: “I am happy. All the people I love have come, they were here and…yeah, now I just can’t believe what happened as I chase the next one. But I’m fine. I have a team that believes in me a lot, sometimes more than I do.
“Well, I didn’t jump (6.31m) because I was tired, but I set the world record, so I’m happy about that. I can’t imagine that I surpassed Sergey Bubka and Renaud Lavillenie at all. It was definitely something I always wanted to do, we believed in it, I told myself it was a great thing.
Karalis and Duplantis will meet for the first time this year at the Mondo Classic in Uppsala, Sweden, on March 12 ahead of the Torun Indoor Athletics Championships March 20-22.
