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Armand Duplantis

.

Stockholm.

June 30th.

All the eyes of the Olympic Stadium are watching him, all the voices are chanting: "Mondo, Mondo, Mondo".

The Swedish public wants to see a pole vault world record.

Everything is ready.

Except him.

Despite the atmosphere, he decides to collect his things and leave.

He doesn't jump.

Not an attempt over 6.21 meters.

A disappointment for fans.

Why didn't he even try it?

For two reasons, I imagine.

The first because there is nothing like breaking a world record in a World Cup, at all levels.

And the second because it is very, very difficult to jump such a height.

It seems that we have forgotten it, but for it to happen everything has to work and that only happens once a year or not at all", analyzes

Javier García Chico

, bronze in pole vault at the Barcelona 1992 Games and today a coach, and advances that surely yes will try it in Eugene.

It's what everyone expects, from American fans to the International Athletics Federation.

At the moment no world record has been broken in this championship and on Sunday, the closing is reserved for Duplantis.

It must be time.

Before, next morning (02.05 hours, TDP) he will play the classification, which is supposed to be a simple training session for him.

Psychological factors

After raising his own record twice this year, both in the winter and in Belgrade, from 6.18m to 6.20m, the 22-year-old Swede looks set to do it again, but it won't be that easy.

When he broke the record for the first time in 2020 he was warned to go above 6.25 meters, 6.30, 6.40!, and the difficulty of gaining one centimeter, only one centimeter, was underestimated.

Where is your limit really?

"It's impossible to say, but there are many factors to assess. Of course, physical and technical, but also psychological. Passing the bar at a height where nobody has done it is very complicated. Before

[Sergey] Bubka

exceeded six meters It seemed impossible and shortly after four or five men did it", explains

Alberto Ruiz

'Lobito', finalist in Los Angeles 1984 and Barcelona 1992 and currently responsible for the specialty in the Sant Cugat CAR, before assessing the rest of the conditioning factors.

Other stars of our time, such as

Eliud Kipchoge

,

Karsten Warholm

or

Joshua Cheptegei

, have joined their talent to the technological revolution of carbon to destroy world records in their specialties.

Duplantis has the same weapons that Bubka had, little more.

"He also wears shoes with carbon plates, but in his case they barely make a profit. His strides are few and he runs in a controlled manner with a heavy pole. Because that's another thing: the pole. Today they are made somewhat narrower, but Duplantis basically uses the same poles as Bubka, there has been hardly any evolution in 30 or 35 years," explains Ruiz.

His prediction is also that Duplantis will win gold, his first world title -he lost three years ago in Doha-, and then he will try to overcome 6.21 meters.

"A centimeter is a lot," he concludes.

Duplantis, last March, after his world record in Belgrade.AP

And boy is it.

Duplantis, a talent who spent his childhood in the pole vault hall that his father, Greg

, also a pole vaulter, made for him in the backyard of his house

, has improved, improved and improved just to face that centimeter, but you never know. if it's enough.

His style is the same as always, the same with which he amazed the world as a teenager;

a heterodox style, far from what is taught in schools.

Stick the pole a few centimeters before the box, bat with your body very deep...

"The key is that he is still very young and he is still training, training, training. Since he was a child he has not changed his technique, but he improves his speed, improves his strength and that means he can use harder poles, which propel him more", points out García Chico, who underlines the prudence of all the experts.

"He will not raise the world record much, much more. He can reach 6.25 meters, but for that he needs continuity for a long time. The life of an athlete is what it is", concludes the only Spanish pole vault medalist in an international championship.

Like any athletics fan, like everyone else, he hopes to see another Duplantis world record at this World Cup in Eugene.

But it won't be easy.

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