by Alfonz Juck
Duplantis with a short winter season
ASTANA (KAZ): World record holder Armand Mondo Duplantis is opening his short indoor season on Saturday in Astana at the WIT Gold meet. Duplantis has more major titles on his mind for 2024. After opening, he will compete at his own meeting, the Mondo Classic, in his hometown of Uppsala on 6 February (WIT Silver), followed by a return to Lavillenie’s meeting in Clermont-Ferrand on February 22 (WIT Silver).
Herculis EBS
July 21, 2023, Monaco, photo by Kevin Morris
Then, he will seek to retain his title at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Glasgow 24, which will run from 1-3 March in Glasgow’s Emirates Arena, where Duplantis set his second world record of 6.18m in 2020. “I’m going to have a schedule like last year of just four indoor competitions, keeping it pretty short and sweet,” he said. “So, that’s nice. Only just a few competitions, but I get to really attack them,” he said for World Athletics. In Astana with Duplantis, his training partner Ben Broeders, also Norway´s Sondre Guttormsen, US Cole Walsh, German Oleg Zernikel, and in-shape Urho Kujanpaa from Finland.
RunBlogRun opines: Mondo Duplantis is the world record holder, indoor and outdoor, in the Men’s pole vault. An entertaining athlete, this writer watched Mondo at the LA Grand Prix last May, speak with so selfies, take photos, and speak to fans while warming up and having a sandwich over an hour before he and Sam Kendricks dueled at UCLA’s Drake Stadium.
