Greek pole vault Olympian and European indoor champion Emmanouil Karalis became the second highest pole vaulter in history thanks to his incredible jump at the Greek Indoor Championships in Paiania, on the outskirts of Athens, on Saturday.
Karalis, often dubbed “Flying Manolo” by his fans and co-athletes, cleared a stratospheric 6.17-meter jump, having already cleared a world lead of 6.07-meters on his first attempt. The new achievement once again broke the Greek indoor record for Karalis.
Karalis has been a member of the so-called “6-meters club” since August 2024 and holds both the Greek outdoor and indoor records (6.08 meters and 6.17 meters respectively). In March 2025, he became the first Greek pole vaulter to win a gold medal at a European Athletics Indoor Championship.
Karalis reaches world all-time second best height
The dizzying 6.17 meters that Karalis cleared on Saturday has only ever been conquered by Sweden’s Armand Duplantis, a long-time friend and rival of Karalis.
The Greek pole vaulted cleared this stratospheric height on his second attempt to move to second on the world all-time list ahead of former world record-holders and Olympic champions Sergiy Bubka and Renaud Lavillenie and behind Duplantis, who holds the world record with 6.30 meters from the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, where Karalis won silver.
However, even after his 6.17-meter jump, Karalis wasn’t quite done yet. He composed himself to attempt the 6.31 meters which would have pried the world record away from Duplantis.
Karalis and Duplantis are due to meet for the first time in 2026 at the Mondo Classic in Uppsala, Sweden on March 12th ahead of the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Kujawy Pomorze from March 20-22, when Duplantis will target a fourth successive title.
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