Armand Duplantis is the super favorite for another WC gold.
At the same time, he is dissatisfied – and pleads for change.
– The rules should be changed, says Mondo to DN.
Armand Duplantis is always a huge favorite as soon as there is a pole vault competition. Apart from the race in Monaco last summer, where Duplantis was troubled by a cramping thigh, he has won every race in the past year, and perhaps he is a bigger favorite than ever when the WC is decided in Budapest.
Pleading for change
The reason is that several of Duplanti’s rivals miss the competitions. World number two KC Lightfoot and two-time world champion Sam Hendricks are both home from the World Cup – having failed to progress from the US qualifiers, where only three advance. And that’s nothing that Duplantis likes, right off the bat.
Armand Duplantis believes that jumpers like Sam Kendricks, with the track record he has, should be allowed in a WC, and is now appealing for the system to change.
– I think the system with free places should be developed. A jumper like Sam, who won the WC twice, should have one. Perhaps it could be done as in golf, where whoever wins the US Masters always has the right to compete. The system with free places should be able to be developed, says Duplantis to DN, and continues:
– The problem is that there are too many good jumpers in the USA.
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“That’s the problem”
Duplantis believes that the association could also get the chance to choose which jumpers will compete, but even that leads to certain difficulties.
– But the problem is that it will be difficult to choose, should you go by form or what the jumper has performed in previous championships. It is difficult, says Duplantis.
When the qualification was decided on Wednesday, it was also clear that both Norwegian jumpers Sondre Guttormsen and Pål Haugen Lillefosse will miss the final. Zach Bradford, the American who got to go to the WC at Sam Kendrick’s expense, also went out.
– It’s sad for them, but it’s tough in the qualifiers and many good jumpers, says Duplantis.
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