Pole vaulter Armand Duplantis has made setting a world record an art. The 24-year-old megastar of athletics broke the ME height for the first time already in February 2020 in hall 617.
Two years ago, he improved the world record no less than three times. Last Saturday, at the opening of the Diamond League season in Xiame, China, the Swedish top was responsible for his first ME performance of the year, 624.
Duplantis has thus proven that he is an exceptional athlete, for whom setting a world record is no stretch of the imagination.
However, in the 24-year-old athlete’s latest ME attempt, attention was drawn to the ease of the jump. He flew over the bar 624 right away on his first and, above all, airily.
He himself set world records in the 400-meter hurdles (45.94) and shocked Norway Karsten Warholm sensed ease.
– I have never seen “Mondo” jump the world record so easily. He will hardly give up those shoes so easily, Warholm stated NRK’s by.
With the shoes, Warholm referred to the special Puma spikes used by Duplantis, which have a kind of protrusion at the end. Warholm if anyone can talk about those shoes, because he already wore them in 2022.
Norwegians as inspirations
Coach father of Armand Duplantis Greg Duplantis tells Urheilu that the pole star met Karsten and his coach By Leif Olav Alnes in connection with last summer’s Diamond League competition in Monaco.
Juuri Alnes has innovated this shoe together with the shoe giant Puma. Warholm and Duplantis have the same shoe size.
The point of the spikes developed by Alnes is that the nail at the tip of the shoe extends the contact time with the track surface. As a result, the energy generated from movement can be utilized better.
– Mondo tried them and liked them. He now gets the same shoe as Karsten, says Greg Duplantis.
Shoe technology has played a big role in athletics in recent years in running distances, both on the road and on tracks. According to various studies, it has been speculated that the “miracle spikes” used on the track, for example, can take a few seconds off the time in a short run like 1,500 meters.
Greg sees that the new shoes play a clearly smaller role in the pole vault. A biomechanics expert working in Kihu I met Keränen can see that in a sport like pole vaulting, the poles dictate a more significant role than the shoes.
– I can’t say if they (the spikes) have a big effect on speed running, but he likes to use them, Greg says.
Duplantis will attempt a new world record on Chinese soil today, when the second Diamond League competition of the season is held in Shanghai.
However, he does not have the spikes he used in his previous ME jump, because after the world records, the International Athletics Federation World Athletics takes the shoes into their hands and takes them to the laboratory, where they are checked to see if they comply with the rules.
Eight MEs
Making different spikes in running is good business, because there are many running enthusiasts worldwide. Keränen says that in field sports there are more restrictions in terms of spikes than in running distances.
He therefore does not see that the special spikes used by Duplantis would cause some kind of phenomenon in the field sports of elite athletics, where many other elites would want to wear the shoe in question.
– However, running is so much more of a hobby. Instrument manufacturers think about the sales volume of their products. They invest in something where sales will be relatively stronger, Keränen sees.
Greg Duplantis reiterates that he doesn’t see those spikes playing a significant role in his son’s recent ME. He already reminds you of the facts presented at the beginning of the story.
– He has set eight world records, only one of which came with the spikes in question. He’s in really good shape, so it wasn’t a surprise that 624 already went, Greg Duplantis reminds.
This summer, Duplantis will first seek his third consecutive European outdoor track championship and his second Olympic gold in Paris in August.
Before Paris, the program includes, among other things, the European Championship and several Diamond League competitions, so the ME may have completely new readings when going to the Olympics.
However, Greg Duplantis doesn’t want to speculate on what his son’s ME readings will be at the end of this year.
– He has already set a world record this year, which is fantastic. Our main goal is to develop for the Olympics. I’m not thinking now about what it (WE) can be this year.