Sawt Falasteen - Improving standards transform pole vault as spectacle, says Duplantis

Duplantis has truly dominated the pole vault since 2019, winning two Olympic golds and three world titles. Also a four-time world indoor champion, he recently picked up a fourth European crown.

Beside the burgeoning medal cabinet, the 26-year-old has also set the world record 15 times.

It currently stands at a towering 6.31 metres and Duplantis has regular attempts at bettering that mark, normally after he has wrapped up another victory on the circuit.

But in recent competition, Greece's Emmanouil Karalis has proved his worth as a rival to the US-born Swede.

Asked whether he was happy that his rivals were now regularly hitting the 6m mark, Duplantis joked: "No! I just want to chill!

"I just want to win, go home and take it easy."

Speaking on the eve of the Diamond League meeting in Zurich, Duplantis then doffed his other cap, calling the competition "really fun".

"I think everybody really likes it. What's been really amazing to see is just how much the fans are getting behind it," he said.

"Everybody's really enjoying not only just seeing me get pushed really hard, but also everybody just jump really high and jump really well."

Recent competition has seen Duplantis and Karalis captivate public interest, notably at the European championships in Birmingham and in the Diamond League.

"We had a great competition with Manolo (Karalis) and I in Birmingham, but then in Lausanne, I feel like it just kind of set a new precedent for our sport and our event," Duplantis said of the Diamond League meet last week.

- Unprecedented -

Duplantis won the event in the Swiss city with a best of 6.21m, while Karalis cleared 6.16m.

Never before had a second-place finisher jumped so high as both men broke the previous meet record of 6.15m.

"It's really unheard of and unprecedented for our kind of event. It's been really fun," Duplantis said.

With barely time to pack the poles and have a breather, the vaulters were back in action in Silesia on Sunday.

Although there was the rare sight of Duplantis bringing the bar down three times at relatively low heights for him, he went on to claim victory with a best of 6.20m.

Karalis and Norway's Sondre Guttormsen both made 6.00m, playing a big part in adding to an electric atmosphere in the stadium for that Silesia meet.

"It gets totally different juices flowing, and I think people have been wanting to see that -- they want to see a competition," said Duplantis.

After Zurich, athletes head to the Diamond League finals in Brussels on September 4-5 and the inaugural season-ending World Ahtletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest a week later.

The non-stop action was not something that deterred Duplantis, who has had a busy off-track year after his marriage to Swedish model and social media personality Desire Inglander and house move to Monaco.

"Now I've done so many wonderful things this year off the track, I feel like now I've got myself committed, kind of purposefully, into a really tough and grindy period of a lot of competitions," said Duplantis.

"I want to get back a little bit into the mud and really grind a bit."

T.Khatib--SF-PST