The China Mail - Record breaker Duplantis ready for return to 'special' Torun

Duplantis sailed over that new mark in a meet in Uppsala, Sweden, on Thursday. It was the 15th world record he has set in an event he has totally dominated since coming onto the international stage.

His victory in Uppsala was his 38th consecutive victory in competition dating back to the summer of 2023.

The double Olympic gold medallist (2021, 2024) is also the three-time world outdoor champion (2022, 2023, 2025).

In addition, he is a three-time world indoor champ (2022, 2024, 2025) and heads to Torun, Poland, for this season's world indoors as firm favourite at a venue he knows well.

"Torun is a very special place for me since I broke my first world record there," Duplantis said on Sunday in reference to the 6.17m he cleared in February 2020 to better by 1cm Renaud Lavillenie's previous world best.

"I've been fortunate enough to break a few since then, but the first one's always a very life-changing moment.

"You go from, in one instance being not the world record holder, to the world record holder, which is one of my biggest childhood dreams."

The central Polish city that hosts the March 20-22 world indoors, was "a very special place for me as an athlete", Duplantis said.

"I'm just really excited for it, honestly, and especially after what I was able to do just now in Uppsala."

- Laser focus -

Since breaking the world record in Torun six years ago, Duplantis has single-handedly raised the bar, a demonstration of a stunning consistency that has seen him clear the 6.00m barrier for eight straight seasons over 79 competitions dating back to the 2018 European championships in Berlin.

But the 26-year-old, born in Louisiana to an American father and Swedish mother, insists he takes nothing for granted.

"You can never have too much of a hubris and be overconfident when it comes to sports, and you never can just underestimate your opponents," said Duplantis, who listed "Levels" by Avicii as his world record-breaking "anthem".

It also came down, he added, to respect for the art of pole vaulting, a field discipline demanding not only exceptional speed, strength and agility, but also a considerable level of technical nous.

"It always requires just a laser amount of focus. There's no slacking off that you can do really," he said.

"It's just such a difficult sport and, especially at this level, it's like I just always have to bring my 'A' game -- I feel like that's always my mentality going into it.

"I never feel like it's just ever given to me."

Duplantis did add, however, that "when I do the things that I know that I can do, and I focus and I jump the way that I know that I can jump, then I do feel like I'm the best one every time I step out onto the track".

Asked whether he thought he could increase the world record beyond 6.40m, Duplantis was coy.

"I probably think about it a lot less than you," he told reporters.

"I like the chase and the journey and pushing myself and trying to be the best version that I can be and of course trying to compete really hard every time I step on the track."

That involves trying "to just keep raising it and pushing the envelope", but Duplantis insisted that he had "never been so much of a numbers guy. I'm not very analytical".

"It's really not something that I care about all that much."

L.Johnson--ThChM