MISSION POSSIBLE: Duplantis confident to soar past 6.40m mark
‘I didn’t feel like my best, it was probably the worst that I felt for a world record jump, honestly, before.’
Daily Tribune‘I didn’t feel like my best, it was probably the worst that I felt for a world record jump, honestly, before.’
ARMAND Duplantis believes that he can soar past 6.40 meters entering the Golden Spike meet in Ostrava, Czech Republic.
PEDRO PARDO/agence france-presse
OSTRAVA, Czech Republic (AFP) — Swedish pole-vaulting star Armand Duplantis said on Monday that clearing 6.40 meters was “in the realm of possibility,” eight days after improving his previous world record to 6.28m.
The 25-year-old United States-born double Olympic champion set his 12th world record at the Stockholm Diamond League meet on 15 June.
“I’ve always believed that I’m able to keep pushing higher, and of course I’ve shown now that I’m very, very close to 6.30 meters,” Duplantis told reporters ahead of the Golden Spike meet in the Czech city of Ostrava.
“I want to keep pushing and I want to get to 6.30m as soon as possible.”
“I’d like to get to 6.40m, that would be another crazy barrier, of course, and that also feels like in the realm of possibility for me.”
Duplantis said he had been surprised that his latest world record had come in Stockholm because the set-up had not been ideal.
“I didn’t feel like my best, it was probably the worst that I felt for a world record jump, honestly, before,” Duplantis said.
“I felt like I was a little bit all over the place on the day and a little bit inconsistent. But then I hit the right jump at the right time, which I guess is the most important in pole vaulting.”
Setting a world record in Sweden presented Duplantis with a welcome occasion to celebrate with friends and family.
“I did celebrate it pretty hard, but I feel like I’m fully recovered now and ready to start jumping again,” he said.
Duplantis also announced he is planning to release his second song this week, following on from his debut single “Bop” in February.
“I’m going to drop a song Friday, midnight actually, so that’s pretty cool,” he said.
The new song is called 4L, meaning “For Life.”
“I dropped one song only this far, but I’ve done tons of music the past couple of years really so that’ll be fun.”
“I feel like I’d like to have another hobby, I guess, maybe not distract me, but just give me something else mentally.”
Duplantis said he enjoyed golf but was discouraged because “in Sweden, it’s super cold.”
Meanwhile, World Athletics president Sebastian Coe promises his next two years in office will be lively with the inaugural staging of the Ultimate Team Championship.
The 68-year-old Englishman has shrugged off the disappointment of finishing third in the International Olympic Committee presidential election in March, telling AFP he is “not one for rear view mirrors.”
“Concede and move on,” he said.
And move on he certainly has.
The old brio, dynamism and charm are all to the fore as he addresses the issues that will dominate the final leg of a 12-year tenure that — like his Olympic gold medal-winning track career — has never been dull.
The World Championships arrive in September in Tokyo — “a massive moment,” Coe says, not least because there will be spectators, unlike at the Covid-delayed 2020 Summer Olympics in the same stadium.
