PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Armand Duplantis has not convinced yet this year.
Nevertheless, “Mondo” ranks as world number one in pole vaulting.
That causes athletics oracle A Lennart Julin to direct criticism.
For the sake of unusualness, the world star has Armand Duplantis did not fly playfully easily over six meters during the start of 2024. The 24-year-old did indeed win his own pole vault gala “Mondo Classics”, but to the modest winning height of 5.92 meters.
Duplantis best
American rival KC Lightfoot also managed the same height but with more rips and thus finished in second place. But immediately after the competition, both went up to joint place as world number one in the International Association of Athletics Federations, WA’s, rankings.
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Which is still surprising as neither of them has jumped the highest in the pole vault world. At the end of January jumped Christopher Nilsen 6.01 meters in South Dakota but that result does not concern WA in its ranking, even Lightfoot has also jumped higher in another competition this year.
– You have your own definition of what the world is. There is a feeling that the international federation feels that they themselves own athletics, says the athletics oracle A Lennart Julinwho also works as a statistician at the Swedish Athletics Federation, to Dagens Nyheter.
A Julin’s criticism
The reason why “Mondo” Duplantis is considered world number one, even though he did not jump the highest this year, is because World Athletics does not approve the competitions as they have not paid the fee to be certified. It is a fee of 25 dollars, roughly 260 Swedish kronor, which determines whether a competition and its results can be approved by the athletics association.
– It is really taking from the poor and giving to the rich, that those who organize the competitions should have to pay a fee to a federation that they never really see, says a critical Julin who thinks that the ranking is “misleading”.
– People can participate in small local competitions on their home ground even if they are stars. That’s what happened to Nilsen and Lightfoot. Doing it this way establishes that it was some kind of cheating result.
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Also the Swedish shot putter Axelina Johansson were affected by this regulation last year. When she broke a new Swedish indoor record with 19.30 during a competition in Nebraska, but because they did not pay the fee, the competition result was not registered internationally.
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This year she competed in the same competition again and her best jab was recorded at 18.44.
– That result came with this time because now they had paid the 25 dollars – but that didn’t mean that the competition was better or worse than before, says Julin to the daily newspaper.
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