Swedish-American pole vaulter Armand Duplantis (pictured) yesterday said he won’t be thinking too far ahead as he launches his bid for a medal at the 2019 Doha World Athletics Championships.
Duplantis, a little short of his 20th birthday, will opt the steady approach as he competes against the best at the Sept 27-Oct 6 track and field event.
“I can’t think about the finals when I am not in the finals. I have to focus on the qualifying rounds first,” Duplantis said in an interview.
“Hopefully it will be an easy and smooth qualifying round which will be great. That’s what I hope. That’s what I really want to happen,” he added.
Excerpts from a quick Q&A session with the rising Swedish star:
Tell us something about your preparations for the worlds and what do you expect from the first week.
A: What I have right now is what I will have in a week from now. I am not going do anything I don’t want to do. I am not trying to get faster or stronger. I am just trying to maintain what I have right now. What I have right now is very good in itself. I can compete with everybody. The focus right now is the qualifying rounds. It’s not that fun of an answer but it’s the truth. I can’t think about the finals when I am not in the finals. I have to focus on the qualifying rounds first. Hopefully it will be an easy and smooth qualifying round which will be great. That’s what I hope. That’s what I really want to happen.
So you rather go for a step-by-step approach?
Yes. Only then can I focus on the finals. Right I have to make it (the finals) first. Step by step. (I don’t have to) get too ahead of myself. I am excited. I know it’s going to be a great competition. There’s so many great athletes in the pole vault right now. It’s an exciting event. (Looks like) it’s going to be a very unpredictable result that we are going to get. It’s fun. I am very excited for it. We all have been building up for this event. It took a while to get here. We are finally here at the world championships. It was a very strange format this year. I speak for everybody saying that. I am excited. I am ready to get this thing going, ready to jump.
How do you look back at your season?
I am happy and I am exactly where I want to be. I am in a right spot to have a good world championships. I am confident about myself. Like I said you have to get to qualifying round first. You can dream about the medals but first things first - the qualifying rounds. I have to get past that first.
What are your long-term goals?
I want to win things - I want to win Olympics, World Championships. I want those events in my career. I want to break records. I will never quit until I become the best. I still have lots of things I still want to accomplish but the European Championships was like a little taste of a lot of what I have been dreaming about when I was a kid. But right now I have the world championships, I have five-seven days. I am not thinking too much about the future. I want to live in the present.
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Armand Duplantis was still competing at youth level in 2018 when he cleared 6.05m at the European Athletics Championships to win gold and record the fourth best pole vault in the history of the sport. Now at 19 years of age, the Swedish athlete, affectionately known as Mondo, remains eligible to contest youth competitions but has already been making his mark at the senior level.
Duplantis, who was named Male Rising Star of the Year by IAAF in 2018, is currently the joint No. 2 all-time outdoor pole vaulter and is the record holder for junior pole vault indoors and outdoors.
Born to a sporty family where the father is a former pole vaulter and the mother is a former heptathlete and volleyball player, it was not abnormal for Mondo to start vaulting at the age of five.
“I think it was just something we were born with. We loved it from the beginning, we loved to do it. I don’t think it was something we needed to have a choice (about). We were going to do it anyway,” Duplantis said in an interview with IAAF.
