Armand Duplanti’s start to the season is worrying.
But now Kajsa Bergqvist gives reassuring news.
– It has gone incredibly well in training, says the national team captain.
We have become accustomed to Armand Duplantis always surprising with sky-high hopes and profits. He has several world records to his name, he has won the Olympics and the WC, and is one of Sweden’s absolute greatest athletes. But the start of the season has not been sparkling.
The reassuring message
Armand Duplantis has so far jumped in two competitions, and has not yet reached the six-meter mark, something that was everyday for him in previous seasons. In the season opener in Kazakhstan it was “only” 5.80, and at the own gala in Uppsala with 5.92.
Although Duplantis has won both competitions, there have still been voices of concern about his form. Duplantis has spoiled the Swedish people and all those interested in pole vaulting with a sensational low level in recent years, when he has pretty much won every competition he entered in. This is, according to SVT, the first time since the spring of 2021 that he has jumped two consecutive competitions during six meters.
“I have heard that…”
But Kajsa Bergqvist, athletics icon and national team captain, believes that there is no cause for concern, and that the reports she has received are promising, to say the least.
– I have heard that it went very well in training. The thing that he had trouble with at the beginning of the season, with timing combined with the sticks and all that science, is sitting now. It has gone incredibly well in training, says Kajsa Bergqvist to SVT.
Armand Duplantis has so far been open that he had some problems with the approach and the hardness of the rods, but it is something that must be fixed.
– I don’t feel worried even though it is “only” 5.92 in the year’s best list, says Bergqvist, who on Tuesday included Armand Duplantis in the squad that will compete during the indoor WC in Glasgow.
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