Greek pole vault star Emmanouil Karalis cleared six meters to win the silver medal at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham, once again finishing alongside the sport’s dominant force, Armand Duplantis.
Karalis was one of only two athletes to clear the six-meter mark in Sunday’s final, securing his second consecutive silver medal at the outdoor European Championships. Duplantis won his fourth straight European title with a championship-record clearance of 6.15 meters, while France’s Baptiste Thiery took bronze.
The result continued an extraordinary run for the 26-year-old Greek athlete, who has established himself among the world’s leading pole vaulters.
Karalis reaches six meters again
Karalis began his competition at 5.55 meters before progressing through 5.85 meters and 5.95 meters. His successful clearance at 6.00 meters secured another major international medal and put pressure on Duplantis in the final stages of the competition. The Greek athlete then attempted 6.10 meters before raising the bar to 6.15 meters and later 6.20 meters in pursuit of the gold medal, but Duplantis retained his European crown.
For Karalis, however, the silver represented another milestone in a remarkable sequence of major-championship performances.
Another major medal for Greece’s pole vault star
Karalis had already won silver at the 2024 European Championships in Rome before taking Olympic bronze at the Paris Games later that year. His rise continued in 2025 with a European indoor title, followed by major medals on the world stage. Earlier this year, he cleared 6.17 meters at the Greek Indoor Championships, a performance that European Athletics described as making him the second-highest vaulter in history at the time.
The Birmingham final showed again just how consistently Karalis now operates at the sport’s highest level. Clearing six meters is no longer an isolated breakthrough for the Greek athlete but a height he has repeatedly reached in major competitions.
Duplantis remains the athlete to beat in pole vault, but Karalis has firmly established himself among the small group capable of joining him beyond the six-meter barrier. His latest European silver also adds to an increasingly impressive medal collection—and gives Greece another major athletics success on the international stage.
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