Duplantis wins 3rd successive European pole vault title

ROME, Italy – Jakob Ingebrigtsen became the most successful male European athlete in Rome on Wednesday (Thursday Manila time), while Armand “Mondo” Duplantis won his third pole vault title and Marcell Jacobs set the crowd alight with a second gold as part of the Italian relay team.

In a high-octane night of track and field featuring some of the leading competitors on the global stage, the large crowd at the Stadio Olimpico was treated to some sterling performances.

Not least from Olympic champion Ingebrigtsen, who at just 23 years of age claimed his third successive 1500/5,000m double after winning the 1500m in a championship record of 3min 31.95sec.

Those six golds establish him as Europe's leading male athlete, beyond Britons Mo Farah and Roger Black and then-West Germany's Harald Schmid, who all also won six European medals, but whose tallies included five golds and a silver.

"I just do my best in every race and sometimes it goes out very well," said Ingebrigtsen.

Duplantis, the Olympic and two-time world champion, was untouchable in the pole vault, an event he has dominated in recent seasons. He bettered his own championship record by 5cm to 6.10m for gold and went close on three occasions to improving his own world record of 6.24m.

Italy topped the medals table with 11 golds, nine silvers and four bronzes for an overall haul of 24. France, Britain, Norway and Switzerland each collected four golds.

Given Team Italia's dominance, it was fitting that Olympic champion Jacobs, who had retained his 100m crown on Saturday, had the final word by helping the 4x100m relay team to victory.

Jacobs teamed up with Matteo Melluzzo, Lorenzo Patta and Filippo Tortu for victory in 37.82 seconds.

Draped in Italian flags, Jacobs immediately led his teammates up into the stands to embrace Italy President Sergio Mattarella, government and federation officials, to wild applause and cheers from the partisan crowd.

Lke Jacobs, Britain's women's 100m winner Dina Asher-Smith led her country's quartet to victory in the 4x100m relay in 41.91sec.

There was a second British gold thanks to Keely Hodgkinson, who retained her 800m title with a trademark gun-to-tape race for victory in