A roaring crowd, the promise of good weather and a competitive field all make for an enticing line-up when Olympic champion Armand Duplantis takes to the runway of the men’s pole vault at today’s Diamond League meet.
Some 28,000 spectators are expected at the King Baudouin Stadium amid eased Covid-19 restrictions in the Belgian capital, something Duplantis said all athletes would appreciate.
“I want the crowd to have a lot of energy behind me,” said the US-born Swede, who won gold in Tokyo in an empty stadium.
Throw in a forecast for hot, sunny conditions and Duplantis was beaming, with thoughts once again turning to talk of bettering his own world record of 6.18 metres, set indoors in Glasgow. “I think it’s a combination of everything,” he said at a pre-meeting press conference when asked what was needed to help him break the mark he set last year, when he also established his best outdoors mark of 6.15m, in Rome.
“If you want to do something like the world record you need something close to perfect... especially in these outdoor competitions,” he said.
“I want good, hot weather. Hopefully the wind is pretty dead and consistent for us to be able to get used to it and get a nice rhythm on the runway.”
Duplantis has a season’s best of 6.10m, but routinely attempts a new world record after assuring victory, as he did in the Olympic final. For his rivals, it is simply a question of playing catch-up. His closest rival in today’s field is American Christopher Nilsen, who vaulted 5.97m to win silver in Tokyo.
Duplantis went into the Tokyo Games as one of the stand-out athletes and the 21-year-old did not disappoint.
“I didn’t realise the magnitude of the Olympics until it actually happened,” he said, explaining that the Games’ postponement by a year because of the coronavirus pandemic had raised expectations.
“There was a lot of a lot of stress, a lot of pressure, everybody was talking about it,” he said.
“When it finally happened and I was able to go back to Sweden after I was able to accomplish the goal and be able to bring that (gold) back it was a really surreal feeling.
“It was really crazy, even just walking on the street you can feel how big of a deal it was for everybody. I’ve accomplished some decent things and I’ve broken old records but nothing compares to the reaction that I got.”
Duplantis concluded: “You don’t know when the days are going to come when everything’s going to line up perfectly.
“But I feel like I’m in good shape. I know what I have to do to go out there and to jump high... I’m going to do my best, that’s for sure.”
Dutch star Hassan headlines classy Brussels leg
Dutch all-rounder Sifan Hassan, who won two golds and a bronze in an unprecedented effort at a distance treble at the Tokyo Olympics, heads up a talent-loaded field at the penultimate meeting of the 2021 Diamond League series in Brussels today.
In the last event before the two-day Diamond League finals in Zurich on September 8-9, the men’s 100m featuring Tokyo silver medallist Fred Kerley of the US will also be a highlight.
Kerley will be up against compatriots Trayvon Bromell, Michael Norman and Ronnie Baker, along with Canada’s Olympic 200m champion Andre De Grasse. Kerley, fresh from a personal best of 19.79sec in the 200m in Paris last week, said: “I’ve got a lot of confidence in my current form and want to show what I’ve got in the upcoming weeks.
“My goal is very clear: I want to be the fastest man in the 100m, 200m and the 400m.”
Kerley joined an exclusive club this year of sprinters who have broken 10 seconds in the 100m, 20 seconds in the 200m and 44 seconds in the 400m. Only Norman and South African Wayde van Niekerk have also achieved the feat.
“I want to be the best at all three distances. What makes someone the best, maybe a world record? I know I have got the potential to break the 400m record.
“I want to be a legend, like Usain Bolt. I see him as a big brother. To me he will always have a spot on the podium of the greatest of all time, he is a big example.”
Hassan will race the mile at the King Baudouin Stadium, a venue she knows well, having broken the one-hour world record there last year.
The Ethiopian-born Dutch runner is also the world record holder in the mile and, given her sparkling form, it would take a brave person to bet against her winning once again.
The women’s 200m is packed full of quality, with Tokyo bronze medallist Shericka Jackson, Olympic finalist Marie-Josee Ta Lou and a handful of sprinters who have a point to prove after Olympic disappointment this summer. Outspoken American Sha’Carri Richardson missed out on a trip to Tokyo after being handed a one-month ban after testing positive for cannabis while Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith was forced to pull out through injury.
Christine Mboma, the 18-year-old Namibian who is barred from running events between 400m and the mile because of her high testosterone levels, won a surprise silver in the 200m in Tokyo and will likely be a strong contender in Brussels.
Having rebounded from a disappointing outing at Lausanne with an emphatic win in Paris, Olympic pole vault champion Armand “Mondo” Duplantis is likely to again attempt to better his own world record of 6.18m.
(File photo) Sifan Hassan.