MONACO — Serial world record setter Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis has spent countless hours batting away questions about how he stays motivated in the men’s pole vault.
The US-born Swede set his 15th pole vault world record in March, clearing 6.31m in Sweden, and is one of the star attractions in whatever meeting he appears.
The two-time Olympic champion and triple world gold medallist will compete in Monaco’s Diamond League on the back of victory with 6.13m in Paris and a rare defeat on home cinder in Stockholm.
Since first breaking the world record in Torun six years ago, Duplantis has single-handedly raised the bar, a demonstration of a stunning consistency that has seen him clear the 6.00m barrier for nine straight seasons.
“Time has already gone really, really quickly,” Duplantis, who made his Diamond League debut in 2017, said according to AFP.
“I’ve actually been jumping for a long time especially at this level. It’s pretty hard to comprehend.”
While courtesy and politeness are often rolled by the 26-year-old out in answer to questions about whether he still had the desire to compete in one of the most technically demanding events of track and field, Duplantis did not mince his words in Monaco.
“I want to be as good as I can for as long as I think it’s fun to compete at this level,” he said.
“As long as I like it and as long as I like the grind of everything, then I imagine that I’ll continue to compete to jump.
“As far as right now I feel like there’s a lot of hunger and motivation still in the tank, so I think I’m going to be going for a while.
“This first nine years went scarily fast, like too fast. I’m trying to soak it all up and enjoy it because it’s really insane how fast everything goes.”
The men’s pole vault was not initially on the programme in Monaco, the 10th of the 15-leg Diamond League circuit.
But Duplantis, as a new resident of the Principality, got down on bended knee with the organisers to include his event.
“It’s going to be my first time jumping here as a resident, so home turf,” he said.
“I really had to push hard, to fight hard for us to be added as an extra event.
“I’m just really happy about it. I didn’t want to miss out on all the fun.
