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Kendricks defends pole vault title

DOHA, QATAR - OCTOBER 01: Sam Kendricks of the United States, gold, Armand Duplantis of Sweden, silver, and Piotr Lisek of Poland, bronze, celebrate after the Men's Pole Vault final during day five of 17th IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 at Khalifa International Stadium on October 01, 2019 in Doha, Qatar. (Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images for IAAF)

Sam Kendricks of the United States successfully defended his men’s pole vault world title in Doha Tuesday, outgunning Swedish teenager Armand Duplantis in a thrilling final.

Kendricks won on countback after the 19-year-old Duplantis failed to clear three attempts at 6.02m at the Khalifa Stadium.

It was a second world championship gold medal for Kendricks, who won the 2017 title in London.

Duplantis settled for silver while Poland’s Piotr Lisek took the bronze medal.

The 27-year-old Kendricks and his friend Duplantis were left as the last men standing after Lisek bowed out following two failures at 5.97m.

Duplantis and Kendricks both missed their first and second attempts at 5.97m as the tension mounted.

But with Duplantis needing a clearance to stay alive, the teenager delivered, just brushing the bar before going over safely.

That piled the pressure on Kendricks, but the American was up to the task, matching Duplantis’ vault to raise the bar to 6.02m.

That proved beyond Duplantis however, the Swede missing all three attempts to leave Kendricks the victor on countback.

POS	BIB	ATHLETE	COUNTRY	MARK	5.55	5.70	5.80	5.87	5.92	5.97	6.02
1	1902	Sam KENDRICKS	USA	5.97	O	O	O	XXO	O	XXO	XX-
2	1708	Armand DUPLANTIS	SWE	5.97	–	O	O	XO	XXO	XXO	XXX
3	1533	Piotr LISEK	POL	5.87	O	O	O	XO	X-	XX
4	921	Bo Kanda LITA BAEHRE	GER	5.70	O	O	XXX
5	319	Thiago BRAZ	BRA	5.70	XO	O	XXX
6	916	Raphael HOLZDEPPE	GER	5.70	O	XO	XXX
6	783	Valentin LAVILLENIE	FRA	5.70	O	XO	XXX
8	1113	Claudio Michel STECCHI	ITA	5.70	O	XXO	XXX
9	458	Bokai HUANG	CHN	5.55	O	XXX
10	330	Augusto DUTRA	BRA	5.55	XO	XXX
10	1936	Cole WALSH	USA	5.55	XO	XXX
12	246	Ben BROEDERS	BEL	5.55	XXO	XXX