There are nights that an athlete waits for years and, when they finally come, they are nothing like what he had imagined. Emmanuel Karalis climbed the highest step of the Diamond League at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels, at the Memorial Van Damme , having only himself to face. Monto Duplantis , the man everyone was waiting for, withdrew shortly before the start of the final due to foot problems , and the match that was advertised as one of the most riveting matches in the history of the competition changed its character in a few minutes.
The Greek champion didn’t seem to think much of it. He started cleanly, with 5.52m. on his first attempt , left 5.72m. and encountered his first difficulty at 5.82m. , where he needed two jumps to pass. At that moment, he found himself in second place, because Norwegian Sodre Guthormsen had no failed attempts to his credit and briefly overtook him. The break lasted just as long as needed. At 5.92m. Karalis regained control and Guthormsen, seeing that the height was not enough, left his last attempt there and raised the bar to 6.02m. He didn’t make it. The victory was decided and the Norwegian finished the race in second place.
The night could have ended there, but Karalis chose to continue. He also left 6.02m. and asked for the bar at 6.12m. , a height he passed with the third attempt amidst adulation from the stands in Brussels. It is the fourth best performance of his career , and this alone is enough to understand where “Manolo” is this year. Just a few days earlier, in Zurich , he had reached 6.20m. making a national record , while in Lausanne he had passed 6.16m. With his jump in Brussels, he also took the competition record , which until yesterday belonged to Duplantis.
The essence of the evening, however, lies elsewhere. Karalis became the second Greek athlete to win the Diamond League title after Miltos Tentoglou in 2022 , in a list of Greek successes in the finals of the event that includes the four victories of Katerina Stefanidi from 2016 to 2019, Nicole Kyriakopoulou in 2015 and Elina Tzengo in last year’s javelin final. At the same time, he succeeded Duplantis at the top, who had five consecutive victories from 2021 to 2025. A dominance that was broken, even with the Swede out of the pit.
The contrast with the previous night is almost stark. Tentoglou saw his own diamond slip from his hands on the last attempt, with Gale passing him in a buzzer beater finale. Karalis got his without his main rival in front. The two of them have already launched the pole vault to heights that the rest have difficulty approaching, and the Greek himself has said it in the most honest way. “Even if I set a world record, I could finish second,” he had declared, a comment that says everything about the level of competition but also about the relationship between the two men, one that includes the shared glass of wine after the games.
The question, then, remains open for the next time they stand together on the runway. The 6.12m. on the third attempt , however, in a match that was already won, shows something that does not depend on who is standing opposite. Karalis is no longer competing to beat someone. He is competing for height.
