Mondo Duplantis: “I think 6.30m would be a huge barrier to cross”

Swedish pole vaulting superstar talks through what it would mean to set a 14th world record, how rival Emmanouil Karalis motivates him and his “super high expectations” for Tokyo

Mondo Duplantis continues to reach for the stars. At this past week’s Istvan Gyulai Memorial (August 12), he set the 13th world record of his illustrious career with an extraordinary clearance of 6.29m in Budapest.

Returning to the scene of his 2023 World Championships triumph, the Swede was pushed by Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis, especially after the pair both sailed over 6.02m at the first attempt.

After two failures at 6.11m, Karalis bowed out of the competition leaving Duplantis, once again, centre stage. The Swede eventually surpassed that mark and, with the watchful eyes of the entire stadium on the double Olympic and world champion, the bar was then raised to 6.29m.

Although he slightly rattled it on his second attempt, Duplantis cleared the height. Upon landing and, after a quick look to see if the bar had stayed on, the Swede rushed to his celebrate with his fiancé, friends and family in the crowd.

The next height on the list? 6.30m. From Roger Bannister’s 3:59.4 mile to Usain Bolt’s 9.58 100m run, athletics is full of marks that stand the test of time. If Duplantis can clear 6.30m, he will – if he hasn’t already – join that club.

On a World Athletics video call with media from across the globe, the Swede refused to be drawn in to the prospect of a 14th world record – which would equal Sergey Bubka’s tally – and instead emphasised his need to refine the “little details” ahead of next month’s World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.

“Of course the natural next step would be 6.30m and I think that that would be a huge barrier for me to cross and for the sport in general,” Duplantis said. “I’ll just keep looking forward and hopefully I’m able to cross that in the near future. As far as the limit goes for myself, I don’t know. I actually think about it a lot less than you would probably imagine but I know that there’s a lot more in me and that I’m gonna keep jumping higher.

“I’m going to keep pushing it but you know, I’m not like a numbers person. I go with the flow quite a bit, I like to let things just kind of happen naturally and just take whatever life gives me. The main thing is that I’m showing that I’m in good shape and everything’s going as I would like it to. At this point of the season, I’m just trying to keep pushing forward and,…