Greek pole vaulter Emmanouil Karalis won the first gold medal for Greece at the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands.
The Greek Olympic champion shared the gold medal with the Dutchman Menno Vloon, as both cleared 5.90 meters and had the same efforts, winning the highest step of the podium.
The absence of world record holder Mondo Duplantis was a great opportunity for the best European pole vaulters who were in Apeldoorn to take advantage of it.
Karalis proved once again that the future belongs to him in high-level races and in major athletic events. A future which is already in full swing, since 2025 began with six consecutive Panhellenic records and continued with the conquest of the European summit.
At the same time, he became the first Greek pole vaulter in the history of indoor track and field to win a gold medal in the event.
Karalis began his attempt in the final of the event from 5.60m, a height that he surpassed with the first attempt. He then left 5.70 meters. and exceeded 5.80 meters., but at 5.85 meters, he failed in the first two attempts.
The third, however, was impeccable. Karalis passed the bar very high, while he did the same at 5.90 m, this time in the first attempt. At 5.95 meter. Vloon and Karalis had three failed attempts each. The Norwegian Sodre Guttormsen failed to jump 6 meters and the two athletes decided to share the gold.
Can we have two gold medals?
Emmanouil Karalis
and Menno Vloon
share pole vault gold at 5.95m in #Apeldoorn2025! pic.twitter.com/kwU3QVlEL5
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) March 9, 2025
In the Paris 2024 Olympics, the Greek Olympian Emmanouil Karalis won the bronze medal for Greece with a 5.90 meter jump, also.
The Greek athlete flew—literally and figuratively—at the Stade de France to take the bronze medal in the pole vault final at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Manolo, as he is also known by fans, has shown significant improvement in his performance since 2020 Tokyo, where he finished 4th.
Karalis easily passed the 5.80 meters mark and was just as successful in clearing the 5.85 meters vault. He then continued on with the 5.90 meters, breaking his personal record of 5.87 meters. He failed in the 5.95 meters jump and went straight for the 6.00 meters but didn’t make it either.
Karalis is steadily representing Greece, starting in 2015 in European and World Youth Championships. His first distinction was in Cali, Columbia in 2015 where he won 3rd place at 5.20 meters in pole vault.
The following year he won his first gold in the European Youth Championships in Tbilisi, Georgia, jumping 5.45 meters.
In 2023, in the men’s competition now, he won the silver medal in The European Indoor Championships in Istanbul, Turkey with a 5.80 meters jump.
From then on he was in the big league of pole vault athletes winning silver or bronze medals in every European or World championship he participated. His high performance is cemented since he became a Greek Olympian in the Paris 2024 games.
