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Duplantis, a world silver medallist in Doha
last year, set the world record by clearing 6.17m indoors in
Poland in February and bettered that by a centimetre in Glasgow
the same month.
He then went higher than Bubka's outdoor mark of 6.14m, set in
1994, to win gold at the Rome Diamond League meeting in
September.
World Athletics has not distinguished between indoor and outdoor
records in pole vault since 2000.
"That was the main motivation for the outdoor season at the end,
to really get the 6.15m and cement myself as the highest-ever
jumper outdoors," said Duplantis, who won all 16 of his meetings
this year to register a perfect season.
"Growing up ... you see Bubka as almost this mythological
creature. He was not real in the things that he was doing, they
didn't seem possible. Any record where you can knock him down a
ranking is a pretty special feeling."
Duplantis, named male athlete of the year earlier this month, is
now targeting gold at next year's Tokyo Olympics.
"I definitely think I can jump higher. There's always room to
improve. How high? I don't know, but there's more to come," he
said.
"Winning an Olympic gold is the dream. Ever since I was a kid I
wanted to win an Olympic gold, to be the best pole vaulter in
the world. That's the big goal going into the next year."
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter
Rutherford)
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