&ldquo;Every year there&rsquo;s something new. It&rsquo;s an important time for me,&rdquo; says Swedish pole vault star Mondo Duplantis, as he sits in the Oslo sun and considers everything he has to look forward to over the next few weeks, months and years. &ldquo;I want to make my mark known and put my name out there and try to do something legendary.&rdquo;
Something else legendary, that is. When it comes to putting his name out there, Duplantis has been doing that his whole career. He started pole vaulting at four and set the first in a series of world age bests when he was seven (2.33m). Thirteen years and 3.84m later, he became the senior world record-holder. But the 21-year-old is not content with only flying high. Now he wants to do it on the major stage as he continues his journey to an athletics immortality. 
<h2>A family affair</h2>
Duplantis always knew that pole vault was the sport for him. &ldquo;I always felt like I was built to pole vault,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I felt like it was meant to be &ndash; for me to be the best &ndash; and that it would work out some way or another if I just stayed the path.&rdquo;
That path started at the family home in Lafayette, Louisiana, where his eldest brother Andreas was his main inspiration. Six years his junior, Mondo would watch Andreas vault and be awestruck. But the family&rsquo;s athletics roots spread much wider than that, with his father Greg being a 5.80m pole vaulter for the USA and his mother Helena a Swedish international heptathlete. They now coach Duplantis and received the World Athletics Coaching Achievement Award in 2020, the same year in which their son claimed the Male Athlete of the Year honour following his two world record performances. All four of their children showed skill for pole vaulting, with Andreas competing until 2015 and younger sister Johanna also focusing on the discipline, while Antoine moved on to become a baseball player. 
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 &ldquo;I always thought it was such a unique event that was so fun,&rdquo; says youngest Duplantis brother Mondo, explaining the draw of the pole vault. &ldquo;My eldest brother was my biggest inspiration. He was my idol and just watching him grow up and be so much better than me &ndash; I just wanted to be like him and follow in my brother&rsquo;s footsteps.
&ldquo;When he was jumping four metres at a time that I was jumping two metres, I just thought that was the most crazy thing and I couldn&rsquo;t understand how it was possible. It was super inspirational and I wanted to keep trying to see what I could do in the sport.&rdquo;
Quite a lot, as it turns out. 
<h2>&lsquo;Iron sharpens iron&rsquo;</h2>
Growing up in Louisiana, which is where Helena and Greg met at university, Duplantis had a signed poster of France&rsquo;s Renaud Lavillenie on his bedroom wall. It was Lavillenie that Duplantis would succeed as world record-holder and he credits the sport&rsquo;s big hitters with helping him to reach another level. <a href="https://worldathletics.org/news/news/gateshead-pole-vault-kendricks-duplantis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The camaraderie within the pole vault is well known</a>, as is the fact that the world&rsquo;s best never seem to shy away from competing against each other. As an example, Duplantis&rsquo; two final competitions ahead of his Olympic debut in Tokyo were the Wanda Diamond League meetings in Oslo and Stockholm, where he was joined by both Lavillenie and the USA&rsquo;s two-time world champion Sam Kendricks &ndash; the 21st and 22nd times that the trio had come together in a three-way clash.
&ldquo;My first time competing against them was when I was 17 years old and I was this rising star kinda kid that had a lot of potential, but you know how those things can go,&rdquo; Duplantis remembers. &ldquo;From the very beginning they showed me nothing but respect and just treated me like one of the other guys. We fast forward four or five years and now we&rsquo;re here and the situation is a little different &ndash; I am a little older and I&rsquo;m a little better now. It&rsquo;s just cool to see how things can change so much but at the same time relationships can stay so similar to how they were in the beginning.&rdquo;
Reflecting on that competition as a 17-year-old &ndash; the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene where he cleared 5.71m to finish fourth &ndash; Duplantis adds: &ldquo;That was crazy, competing against them. I know that the only way to be the best is if you compete against the best &ndash; &lsquo;iron sharpens iron&rsquo; kind of stuff.
&ldquo;I wanted to go out there and not just dip my toes in it, I wanted to dive headfirst and compete at the biggest meet with the biggest guys. I did that and I got beat up a lot of times. I didn&rsquo;t win one meet against these guys in 2017. In 2018 I won a couple, in 2019 I was winning about half the meets and then 2020 it got better, so I think it was super important for me, the way that I did it.&rdquo; 
<div style="padding: 15px 20px 5px 20px; border: 2px solid #bd94ff;">
<h3><img style="width: 180px; height: 180px; border-radius: 50%; margin-left: 20px;" src="https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/Square/5c3e2b04-09f2-40d2-b356-c9cc8015e741.jpg?cachebuster=e20f328d-4ef4-452e-95c2-2837684df61c" alt="Mondo Duplantis" align="right" />Duplantis' pole vault progression</h3>
Age 6: 1.67m Age 7: 2.33m* Age 8: 2.89m* Age 9: 3.20m* Age 10: 3.86m* Age 11: 3.91m* Age 12: 3.97m(i)* Age 13: 4.15m Age 14: 4.75m(i) Age 15: 5.30m Age 16: 5.51m Age 17: 5.90m* Age 18: 6.05m* Age 19: 6.00m Age 20: 6.18m(i)* WR Age 21: 6.10m *world age best 
<h3>Duplantis' six-metre competitions</h3>
6.05m, Berlin, 12 Aug 2018 6.00m, Fayetteville, 11 May 2019 6.00m, Stockholm, 24 Aug 2019 6.00m(i), Dusseldorf, 4 Feb 2020 6.17m(i), Torun, 8 Feb 2020 6.18m(i), Glasgow, 15 Feb 2020 6.07m(i), Lievin, 19 Feb 2020 6.01m(i), Clermont-Ferrand, 23 Feb 2020 6.00m, Monaco, 14 Aug 2020 6.01m, Stockholm, 23 Aug 2020 6.07m, Lausanne, 2 Sep 2020 6.00m, Brussels, 4 Sep 2020 6.15m, Rome, 17 Sep 2020 6.01m(i), Dusseldorf, 31 Jan 2021 6.03m(i), Rouen, 6 Feb 2021 6.10m(i), Belgrade, 24 Feb 2021 6.05m(i), Torun, 7 Mar 2021 6.10m, Hengelo, 6 Jun 2021 6.00m, Karlstad, 22 Jun 2021 6.01m, Oslo, 1 Jul 2021 6.02m, Stockholm, 4 Jul 2021
</div>
 In 2012 Duplantis was a 12-year-old 3.97m vaulter, in 2016 he was 16 with a 5.51m best. Both years he remembers tuning in to the Olympic Games at home, knowing that one day he would make it there.
&ldquo;I remember watching it from the couch and seeing the way that Renaud and those guys were jumping,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I always thought that I was going to be in that situation &ndash; I could picture myself in the Olympic final, going for that gold and being in that 1-2 battle that Renaud was in with Thiago (Braz, in 2016) or that Renaud was in with Bjorn Otto and Raphael Holzdeppe at the Olympics before. I&rsquo;ve always loved watching Olympic finals because it has given me so much inspiration. I don&rsquo;t really remember that many of them other than 2012 and 2016 &ndash; I was a bit young at that point &ndash; but 2012 and 2016 I remember watching them live and thinking &lsquo;one day I am going to be in that situation&rsquo; and we&rsquo;re getting closer to that becoming a reality, so that&rsquo;s cool.&rdquo;
That&rsquo;s not to say there hasn&rsquo;t been some disappointment along the way. In fact, it was missing out on the world title in 2019 which helped to fuel the 2018 European champion to his world records.
&ldquo;Without the 2019 World Championships loss, I don&rsquo;t think I would have broken the world record the following indoor season because I wanted to win so bad,&rdquo; says Duplantis, who went on to clear 6.17m in Torun in February 2020 and then 6.18m in Glasgow just a week later, to improve on Lavillenie&rsquo;s previous world record of 6.16m which had stood since 2014. Later that year Duplantis also cleared 6.15m in Rome for the highest ever outdoor vault.
&ldquo;There were so many times, especially in that period from 2017 to 2020, where I had these losses that were really motivating because once you win a little bit and then you lose a little bit, you don&rsquo;t want to lose.&rdquo; 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6038da3f2806c8b595c529c4.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="755" /> Mondo Duplantis with his mother and coach, Helena Duplantis (&copy; Getty Images) 
One of Duplantis&rsquo; passions outside of athletics is golf, where &ldquo;the only thing that matters is the next shot&rdquo;. He takes that mindset into the pole vault, too.
&ldquo;I think the mindset is very similar in the sense that it&rsquo;s so important as an athlete to have short-term memory loss and forget about what just happened, because the only thing that matters is what happens next, and the thing that is going to happen &ndash; that&rsquo;s the only thing that you can control,&rdquo; explains the 2018 world U20 champion.
&ldquo;That&rsquo;s how I go into every meet because it doesn&rsquo;t matter that I am the world record-holder or that I jumped the highest jump this year &ndash; I still have to go out there and I still have to jump. They don&rsquo;t care that I am the world record-holder, I don&rsquo;t just get the trophy right away when I show up to the meet. What just happened doesn&rsquo;t matter. It&rsquo;s only about what I&rsquo;m doing in that moment.&rdquo; 
<h2>From Stockholm to Tokyo</h2>
It certainly seems that despite soaring great heights, Duplantis still has his feet firmly on the ground. It could be nerve-racking making an Olympic debut as a big favourite, but the pressure experienced is comparable, he says, with the feeling he had returning to vault in front of a home crowd at the Bauhaus-Galan &ndash; his final meeting before the Games.
&ldquo;I hadn&rsquo;t felt that kind of pressure on me in quite a long time,&rdquo; he said after a competition which he won with 6.02m and then attempted a 6.19m world record, as he also did in Oslo three days earlier. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t been able to really jump in front of a full Swedish crowd since I became the world record-holder so having my family here &ndash; including my eldest brother who hasn&rsquo;t seen me jump since 2018, had never seen me jump six metres and is the reason I jump in the first place &ndash; was super special. Having my girlfriend and her family here, the whole home crowd rooting for me &ndash; I couldn&rsquo;t lose in front of them, so that&rsquo;s another level of it.
&ldquo;The people that you want to make the most proud are the people that are close to you,&rdquo; he adds. &ldquo;Your family, close friends, the people who have supported you from the beginning &ndash; those are the people that you want to make the most proud and those are the people that when I go to Tokyo, I am going to represent. Those people were all in the crowd today (in Stockholm) so I really wanted to perform well. I think the pressure is going to be comparable, even though Tokyo may be a bigger deal and a little more prestigious.&rdquo;
In 2021, at the age of 21, Duplantis has taken his tally of six-metre-plus competition wins to &ndash; you guessed it &ndash; 21. His aim will be to add to that list and get gold in Tokyo, which would be yet another vault towards that legendary status he seeks.
Jess Whittington for World Athletics

Pole vault star Mondo Duplantis is not content with only flying high. Now he wants to do it on the major stage as he continues his journey to an athletics immortality.

Duplantis, pole vault legend in the making

Two-time world champion Mutaz Barshim, world record-holder Mondo Duplantis and&nbsp;double European champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen&nbsp;will be among the athletes in Athletissima action when the Wanda Diamond League makes its 10th stop of the season in Lausanne on 26 August.
Qatar&rsquo;s Barshim will highlight the men&rsquo;s high jump, which is being held for the first time in the city centre as the &ldquo;City Event&rdquo; the day before the main programme. There he will be joined by the Swiss record-holder, Loic Gasch.
Duplantis has promised to make the Lausanne meeting a priority following the Tokyo Olympics. The Swedish 21-year-old has fond memories of his last appearance, in 2020, when he jumped 6.07m to win an enthralling duel against the USA&rsquo;s two-time world champion Sam Kendricks (6.02m) during a competition organised in the city centre. This year the competition will once again take place in the stadium, where Duplantis will no doubt be keen to tackle, at the very least, the stadium record held by Piotr Lisek (6.01m).
Ingebrigtsen is set to highlight the 3000m, which could well see Mohammed Mourhit's European record of 7:26.62 fall. Ingebrigtsen already holds the continental records in the 1500m and 5000m, having broken Mourhit&rsquo;s mark in the longer event in Florence. In Lausanne, the Norwegian will have the support of his brother Filip and pace-setting Wavelight technology, which will be used for the first time at Athletissima.
The women's high jump will provide another opportunity for progression for the new star of Swiss athletics, Salome Lang, who recently broke the Swiss record with a jump of 1.97m to qualify for Tokyo. The Swiss record-holder in the 110m hurdles, Jason Joseph, has also confirmed his participation in Lausanne.
Organisers for World Athletics

Mutaz Barshim, Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Mondo Duplantis will be among the athletes in Athletissima action when the Wanda Diamond League makes its 10th stop of the season in Lausanne on 26 August.

Barshim, Duplantis, Ingebrigtsen and Lang in Lausanne

Mutaz Barshim, Mondo Duplantis and Jakob Ingebrigtsen will be among the athletes in Athletissima action when the Wanda Diamond League makes its 10th stop of the season in Lausanne on 26 August.

There&rsquo;s nothing quite like being bumped down the world all-time list to fire up an athlete.
Perhaps that&rsquo;s just the impetus Karsten Warholm needed ahead of the Oslo Bislett Games on Thursday (1) when he will make his 2021 Wanda Diamond League debut.
The two-time world champion has come close to the world 400m hurdles record of 46.78 on several occasions over the past two years. He has twice broken 47 seconds and owns five other performances within half a second of Kevin Young&rsquo;s long-standing mark.
But last weekend Warholm slipped from second to third on the world all-time list after USA&rsquo;s Rai Benjamin clocked 46.83 to win the US Olympic Trials in Eugene.
On Thursday when Warholm races in front of his home crowd, he will want to at least reclaim his No.2 spot on the world all-time list. His bigger target, though, will be to break Young&rsquo;s record once and for all.
In his one indoor race this year, he clocked a world-leading 300m flat PB of 32.47. And in his only outdoor appearance to date, he broke his own 300m hurdles world best with 33.26 &ndash; half a second faster than his previous best for the distance.
If the 25-year-old goes out at world record pace in Oslo, there&rsquo;s little chance his opponents will pose much of a threat. But Brazil&rsquo;s Alison Dos Santos, Ireland&rsquo;s Thomas Barr, 2016 European champion Yasmani Copello and Estonia&rsquo;s Rasmus Magi will all be looking to sharpen their season&rsquo;s bests as they count down the final few weeks ahead of the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
"It is always special to be running at the Bislett Games," said Warholm at the pre-event press conference. "I did the 300m hurdles a month ago and that was a nice start for me and now I'm really looking forward to doing my favourite event &ndash; I think it's going to be really good. I feel very prepared, inspired and motivated."
After Oslo, Warholm is set to go <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/diamond-league/news/monaco-herculis-2021-benjamin-warholm-thomas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">head-to-head with Benjamin at the Diamond League meeting in Monaco</a>, and talking about the standard in the event, he added: "This is why I am in it &ndash; I am in it to perform, to be up against the big guys and give them a hard time. Either I win or I lose, but I will always give it my all. This is the fun part now because if the medals were handed out before the competition there wouldn't be anything interesting about it. We need to have these duels and these head-to-heads.
"Tomorrow is also going to be a very fun race with a lot of good athletes and exciting talent so it's going to be a tough fight as well. It's not an easy start for me!"
After her surprise defeat over 3000m in Doha last month, two-time world champion Hellen Obiri hopes to return to winning ways in Oslo over 5000m. She gained revenge on world U20 champion Beatrice Chebet, the winner in Doha, at the recent Kenyan Trials where Obiri finished three places ahead of her younger rival in the 5000m. 
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 But the Kenyan duo will have to be at their best again on Thursday as they&rsquo;ll take on world silver medallist Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi, Ethiopian duo Tsehay Gemechu and Fantu Worku, and European silver medallist Eilish McColgan. 
<h2>Clash of the pole vault titans</h2>
Let it never be said that the world&rsquo;s best pole vaulters avoid competition; the Bislett Games will be the 21st time that Mondo Duplantis, Sam Kendricks and Renaud Lavillenie have had a three-way clash.
Duplantis, the world record-holder, has won their past five encounters, but two-time world champion Kendricks has the overall edge, the US vaulter coming out on top 11 times to date. Lavillenie, meanwhile, has won just two of those 20 contests so far, but someone as consistent and as experienced as the Frenchman can never be written off.
Duplantis heads to Oslo off the back of a world-leading 6.10m vault in Hengelo, which was followed by a 6.00m clearance in horrid conditions in Karlstad. Whatever the weather in Oslo &ndash; and fortunately the forecast for Thursday is very good &ndash; Duplantis has shown he can pretty much jump 6.00m on any given day. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/28ea9d31-9501-4fe3-9891-c1672932d0e7.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="635" />
 Kendricks has finished in the top two of all of his competitions so far this year and has a season&rsquo;s best of 5.86m. Lavillenie, however, recently vaulted 5.92m in Chorzow &ndash; his best outdoor clearance for three years.
"I don't think we have all competed together (outdoors) since 2019, so it is really good to be back together," said Kendricks. "I think we're all champing at the bit to try to jump high for you guys, so hopefully tomorrow is the day."
World discus champion Daniel Stahl has won seven of his past eight competitions, but this looks set to be his toughest test of the year so far.
The Swede will face Kristjan Ceh, the Slovenian who set a national record of 70.35m to finish a close second to Stahl in Kuortane last week; Fedrick Dacres, the Jamaican who finished second to Stahl at the 2019 World Championships; Andrius Gudzius, the Lithuanian who preceded Stahl as world champion; and Simon Pettersson, the fellow Swede who handed Stahl his most recent defeat.
Polish javelin thrower Maria Andrejczyk produced one of the early shocks of the outdoor season when she went to No.2 on the world all-time list with 71.40m in Split in May. Like Stahl, Andrejczyk faces a strong line-up in Oslo.
Germany&rsquo;s Christin Hussong finished second to Andrejczyk in Split, but has been undefeated in her seven competitions since then, also improving her PB to 69.19m. World champion Kelsey-Lee Barber, world record-holder Barbora Spotakova and 2016 European champion Tatsiana Khaladovich are also in the field.
In the jumps, world champion Malaika Mihambo takes on world indoor champion Ivana Spanovic and European indoor champion Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk in the women&rsquo;s long jump. Cuban duo Jordan Diaz and Andy Diaz line up against Algeria&rsquo;s Yasser Mohamaed Triki and Germany&rsquo;s Max Hess in the men&rsquo;s triple jump. 
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<h2> Nakaayi, Bol and Kejelcha among the other track headliners</h2>
Uganda&rsquo;s Halimah Nakaayi looks to be rounding into the form that carried her to a surprise world 800m title in Doha two years ago. She lines up for her specialist distance in Oslo and will take on Australia&rsquo;s Catriona Bisset, who recently broke the Oceanian record with 1:58.09, as well as Germany&rsquo;s Katharina Trost and Norwegian record-holder Hedda Hynne.
World 10,000m silver medallist Yomif Kejelcha steps down in distance to the 3000m &ndash; the event in which he is a two-time world indoor champion. The Ethiopian will face Kenya&rsquo;s Nicholas Kimeli, Michael Kibet, Bethwell Birgen and Bahrain&rsquo;s Birhanu Balew.
The Svein Arne Hansen Dream Mile, which has been named in honour of the former Bislett Games meeting director and European Athletics President who died last year, will feature recent Kenyan Trials winner Charles Simotwo, world bronze medallist Marcin Lewandowski and Australian record-holder Stewart McSweyn. Jakob Ingebrigtsen had been set to compete, but he withdrew on Wednesday after picking up a sore throat.
Femke Bol will start as the strong favourite in the women&rsquo;s 400m hurdles. Ukrainian pair Viktoriya Tkachuk and Anna Ryzhykova are also in good form, though.
World Indoor Tour winner Javianne Oliver will make her first competitive appearance since finishing second in the 100m at the US Trials, booking her spot on her nation&rsquo;s team for the Tokyo Olympics. Once again racing over 100m, the 10.96 sprinter will face 2017 world silver medallist Marie-Josee Ta Lou, European indoor champion Ajla del Ponte, and Olympic long jump champion Tianna Bartoletta, who has returned to sub-11-second form this year.
Canada&rsquo;s world and Olympic silver medallist Andre De Grasse, a winner in Oslo over 100m in 2016 and 2017, will be looking for his first 200m victory in the Norwegian capital. Joining him on the start line are Aaron Brown, winner of the sprint double at the recent Canadian Trials, and Botswana&rsquo;s Isaac Makwala.
"The last time I was here was in 2017 and I ran the 100m, of course in different circumstances," said&nbsp;De Grasse. "There was a great crowd and I had a good race. It feels good to be back here again."
Having clocked&nbsp;19.89 &ndash; his third-quickest ever time &ndash; to finish second at the Doha Diamond League at the end of May, he added: "I usually don&rsquo;t start off the season that quick so for me to run my third-fastest time in the 200m, that feels really good. It&rsquo;s just knowing that my training is going really well and that my preparation for Tokyo is coming on good."
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Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics

There’s nothing quite like being bumped down the world all-time list to fire up an athlete.

Highly motivated Warholm ready for his first big race of the year in Oslo

The best pole vaulters in the world are set to gather in Scandinavia for back-to-back clashes in the Wanda Diamond League next month.
World record-holder Mondo Duplantis, world champion Sam Kendricks and seven-time Diamond League champion Renaud Lavillenie will all meet at the Bislett Games in Oslo on 1 July before facing each other again three days later at the Bauhaus-Galan in Stockholm.
With almost 70 Diamond League victories between them, the three vaulters have dominated their discipline for much of the past decade, and will battle it out again in Oslo and Stockholm as they bid to qualify for the Wanda Diamond League Final in Zurich on 8-9 September.
Kendricks currently leads the qualifying standings, having beaten Duplantis in difficult conditions at the season opener in Gateshead last month. But Duplantis has jumped highest this year, clearing 6.10m in Hengelo earlier in June.
The trio will take on Norwegian brothers Sondre and Simen Guttormsen in Oslo, while Poland's world bronze medallist Piotr Lisek will also be on the runway in Stockholm.
Multiple world and Olympic 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce will make her Bislett Games debut next month. The Jamaican currently leads the world list with her 10.63 run in Kingston earlier this month, moving her to second on the world all-time list.
She&rsquo;ll line up against 2017 world silver medallist Marie-Josee Ta Lou, USA&rsquo;s Tokyo-bound Javianne Oliver, and Jamaica&rsquo;s Natasha Morrison.
Stockholm&rsquo;s Bauhaus Galan, meanwhile, will also see world champion Daniel St&aring;hl take on Jamaica&rsquo;s world silver medallist Fedrick Dacres in the men's discus.
Organisers for World Athletics

The best pole vaulters in the world are set to gather in Scandinavia for back-to-back clashes in the Wanda Diamond League next month. 

Pole vault heavyweights in Oslo and Stockholm

Mondo Duplantis, it seems, can&rsquo;t catch a break. In three of his four most recent competitions, he has had to contend with low temperatures or heavy rain. Or &ndash; as was the case at the World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meeting in Karlstad on Tuesday (22) &ndash; both.
The conditions were similar to those he experienced at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Gateshead last month where, after 23 competitions, his winning streak came to an end. On that occasion he cleared a best of 5.55m and had a narrow failure at 5.80m.
Two weeks later in Hengelo, however, and competing in much kinder conditions, Duplantis was able to give a much truer reflection of the form he was in by clearing 6.10m &ndash; the second-best outdoor vault in the world in the past 26 years, bettered only by his own 6.15m clearance from Rome last year.
On Tuesday night, competing on home soil in Karlstad, Duplantis once again had to vault in far-from-ideal conditions &ndash; though, judging by his score card, you wouldn&rsquo;t have been able to tell.
He popped over his opening height of 5.50m on his second try, then passed straight to 5.70m, which he cleared on his first attempt. World bronze medallist Piotr Lisek, who had needed all three tries to get over 5.50m, failed twice at 5.70m and once at 5.80m to exit the competition.
Duplantis, meanwhile, raised the bar to 6.00m. After one miss, he had another try and, despite giving the bar a little nudge, it stayed on.
&ldquo;These are by far the worst conditions I've ever jumped six metres in,&rdquo; said Duplantis. &ldquo;I feel really strong on the runway, mentally, and today really showed that. We&rsquo;re going to see something special very soon.&rdquo;
World discus champion Daniel Stahl was similarly dominant in the discus.
He landed two throws beyond 67 metres, topped by a best of 67.64m, and backed those up with throws of 66.48m and 65.18m &ndash; all of which would have been sufficient to win.
Domestic rival Simon Pettersson was second with 63.61m.
With the conditions making it particularly challenging for sprinters and horizontal jumpers, most of the other highlights came in the throws.
India&rsquo;s Neeraj Chopra won the men&rsquo;s javelin with 80.96m, while Swedish record-holder Fanny Roos won the women&rsquo;s shot with 18.75m.
The best track performance came from Danish record-holder Kojo Musah, who clocked 10.25 (1.3m/s) to win the men&rsquo;s 100m from Henrik Larsson (10.29). Although some way off his season&rsquo;s best, Mark English produced a convincing run in the men&rsquo;s 800m, winning in 1:46.50.
Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics

Mondo Duplantis, it seems, can’t catch a break. 

Duplantis defies Karlstad conditions with 6.00m vault

Dina Asher-Smith and Sha'Carri Richardson will meet in the 200m, while a 400m hurdles field featuring Dalilah Muhammad and Femke Bol has been announced for the Bauhaus-Galan, a&nbsp;Wanda Diamond League&nbsp;meeting, in Stockholm on 4 July.
Britain&rsquo;s world 200m champion Asher-Smith ran 22.06 in her second 200m race of the season at the Diamond League in Florence, while the USA&rsquo;s Richardson opened with a time of 22.11 in Florida in April, and they will go head-to-head in Stockholm following their 100m clash in Gateshead where Asher-Smith claimed the win in wet and windy conditions &ndash; 11.35 to 11.44.
Bol broke the Dutch 400m hurdles record with 53.44 in Florence, a time which puts her third on this season&rsquo;s world rankings behind Sydney McLaughlin and Shamier Little. The 21-year-old will be looking to build on that as she goes up against world record-holder Muhammad, two-time world champion Zuzana Hejnova and European champion Lea Sprunger in Stockholm.
The women&rsquo;s long jump field also looks set to be strong, with home favourite Khaddi Sagnia taking on world champion Malaika Mihambo, world indoor champion Ivana Spanovic and world silver medallist Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk.
The women&rsquo;s high jump so far features world champion Mariya Lasitskene and world silver medallist Yaroslava Mahuchikh plus Sweden&rsquo;s Erika Kinsey and Erika Kinsey, while in the shot put Valerie Adams and Fanny Roos have been announced.
Joining Sweden&rsquo;s already-announced world record-holder Mondo Duplantis in the pole vault will be Sam Kendricks, Renaud Lavillenie, Piotr Lisek, KC Lightfoot and Chris Nilsen, while the discus is set to include Simon Pettersson, Daniel Stahl, Fedrick Dacres and Lukas Weisshaidinger.
World Athletics

Dina Asher-Smith and Sha'Carri Richardson will meet in the 200m, while a 400m hurdles field featuring Dalilah Muhammad and Femke Bol has been announced for the Bauhaus-Galan, a Wanda Diamond League meeting, in Stockholm on 4 July.

Top head-to-heads set for Stockholm

The 40th edition of the FBK Games &ndash; a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting &ndash; in Hengelo looks set to be celebrated with fireworks on the track and field on Sunday (6), with talk of world and meeting records at the pre-event press conferences.
The Fanny Blankers-Koen Stadion is where Sifan Hassan set her European 10,000m record of 29:36.67 last October and the double world champion is looking to go even faster. That time moved the 28-year-old to fourth on the world all-time list and when asked if she might also be aiming for the world record on Sunday, Hassan replied: &ldquo;Maybe, who knows! It could be.&rdquo;
On whether she will set off on a pace targeting Almaz Ayana&rsquo;s 29:17.45 from the 2016 Olympics in Rio, Hassan added: &ldquo;I have to talk to my coach and manager. Sometimes I will change my mind the day before, if I feel good.&rdquo;
The Dutch athlete has been training in Kenya and then Utah, USA, over the past few months, and believes she is in her best ever shape.
&ldquo;When I look at my training, I have never been so good,&rdquo; said Hassan, who confirmed she will be looking to double up &ndash; probably in the 5000m and 10,000m &ndash; at the Olympics in Tokyo. &ldquo;I have never seen myself so good, but I don&rsquo;t know how that will show in competition. My speed is still not as great as before but endurance &ndash; I have never seen myself as I am now. I want to run a PB but it is sometimes hard for athletes to say &lsquo;I will run this&rsquo; because competition and training are not the same.&rdquo;
Another athlete looking for a strong performance on home soil is Dafne Schippers, as the two-time world 200m gold medallist also builds towards Tokyo.
&ldquo;I am feeling okay, this weekend is a very nice competition for me,&rdquo; said the 28-year-old, who opened her 100m season with 11.38 at the adidas Boost Boston Games street meeting. &ldquo;I always need a couple of competitions to go faster and faster, so I hope to go faster than my last competitions.&rdquo;
She forms part of a strong 100m field alongside Britain&rsquo;s world 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith and Nigeria&rsquo;s world and Olympic medallist Blessing Okagbare.
&ldquo;I always like to compete with the best in the world and it&rsquo;s very special to have names like Dina and Blessing in a race like this,&rdquo; added Schippers. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s great to have in the Netherlands. I like to compete with them.&rdquo;
<h3>Asher-Smith excited for Hengelo return</h3>
Six years on from her first senior national 100m record in Hengelo, Asher-Smith returns to the Dutch city as a multiple global medallist looking to build on her opener at a wet and windy Gateshead.
The 25-year-old Briton was a dominant force at the Gateshead International Stadium two weeks ago, battling pouring rain and a -3.1m/s headwind to win the 100m in 11.35. There she finished clearly ahead of world leader Sha'Carri Richardson, multiple world medallist Marie-Josee Ta Lou, two-time Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Okagbare, and she has her sights set on another strong race in more favourable conditions. 
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 &ldquo;Hopefully it will be a little less windy, cold and wet!&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m really excited to be running in Hengelo and over the 100m again. I don&rsquo;t quite know what to expect in terms of, I don&rsquo;t think what kind of number I would want from a race, I just try and go in and run the best race that I can, which was a very useful mindset to have in Gateshead because times were not happening that day!
&ldquo;I have had a good winter and I feel good, so hopefully if the weather is kind to us it could be a really good Sunday.&rdquo;
On returning to the scene of her 11.02 in 2015 &ndash; a British record she has since taken to 10.83 &ndash; Asher-Smith added: &ldquo;I have really fond memories of Hengelo for two reasons. One, it was the first time I broke the British record. The record was 11.05 and I did 11.02 in 2015, so I have really fond memories of being in Hengelo for that reason.
&ldquo;I also really enjoyed racing Dafne there. I think as a professional athlete it was my first experience of being in a race when a really big star is racing at home. It was just so nice to hear the crowd cheering like that. Even though I was a competitor in the race it&rsquo;s still nice to see a crowd really cheer and get behind their home athlete.&rdquo;
Although the crowd will be reduced this year because of Covid-19 restrictions, organisers will still be welcoming 1500 fans to the stadium to cheer on the world-class fields.
<h3>Duplantis ready for Hengelo debut</h3>
Also among those keen to make the most of the crowd support will be world pole vault record-holder Mondo Duplantis as he looks to return to winning ways after a rare loss in Gateshead.
Undefeated in 23 competitions, Sweden&rsquo;s Duplantis was beaten by two-time world champion Sam Kendricks and the weather at the Diamond League meeting last month and although his US rival will not be competing in Hengelo, Duplantis could get one back by breaking the meeting record and Dutch all-comers&rsquo; record of 5.91m set by Kendricks in 2019. 
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 &ldquo;I definitely have a lot of motivation going into this competition because I&rsquo;m coming off a loss right now and I want to get back to winning,&rdquo; said the 21-year-old. &ldquo;I want to show what I can do and try to put up something high. Sam&rsquo;s not going to be there but I guess a way to get back at him would be to take his meeting record!&rdquo;
On the significance of this event on his road to Tokyo, Duplantis added: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s super important because I have just four competitions left until the Olympics and every one is just as important as the other &ndash; figuring out my jump, the technique, my run, trying to get the rhythm and the timing of the jump down because I want everything to be perfect when it comes to the Olympics.&rdquo;
Having fans in the stadium provides an added boost. &ldquo;In Gateshead it was super amazing having the spectators right alongside us there,&rdquo; he explained. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t had that kind of energy from the crowd in quite a while, since the indoor 2020 season. Of course, it&rsquo;s going to be limited right now and they are not going to be able to have full capacity meets, but it&rsquo;s really great to have people there watching you. It just brings an extra piece of motivation for you when you&rsquo;re out there jumping in front of real people instead of just cameras.&rdquo;
In Hengelo there will also be home stars for the fans to support and asked about Dutch record-holder Menno Vloon, who cleared 5.96m indoors in February, Duplantis replied: &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a real explosive vaulter. On any given day you never know what to expect from him.
&ldquo;I know a lot of my competitors are capable of really high heights on any given day. Especially going into this meet in the Netherlands, on Menno&rsquo;s home turf, I don&rsquo;t see why he can&rsquo;t go out there and jump something really high.&rdquo;
Sandra Perkovic is another athlete hoping her event can provide a show in Hengelo. Croatia&rsquo;s two-time Olympic champion takes on two other global winners in Cuba&rsquo;s 2019 world gold medallist Yaime Perez and 2015 world champion Denia Caballero, and they will be joined by Portugal&rsquo;s Liliana Ca and Melina Robert-Michon of France.
&ldquo;Last year was really tough for all of us because we didn&rsquo;t have the Olympics and we didn&rsquo;t have any strong meets, so this year when I started to compete &ndash; first in Doha &ndash; and saw all the other girls, I was happy to finally be all together in one place chasing for that goal and the goal is to win," said Perkovic.
&ldquo;I expect a nice fight (on Sunday), especially with the Cubans and also the girl from Portugal and of course the silver medallist from Rio 2016, so it is going to be a very good competition for me.&rdquo;
Like Asher-Smith, Perkovic has fond memories after achieving a milestone moment in Hengelo.
&ldquo;In 2007 it was my first time in Hengelo, at the European Junior Championships, and that is the place I threw my junior national record which at that time was 55.42m," she said. "I am happy to be back in this stadium and this place &ndash; 14 years later I am still here and still competing, so I am excited.&rdquo;
Jess Whittington for World Athletics

The 40th edition of the FBK Games – a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting – in Hengelo looks set to be celebrated with fireworks on the track and field on Sunday (6), with talk of world and meeting records at the pre-event press conferences.

Hassan eyes world record, Duplantis ready to soar in Hengelo

Five world champions, four Olympic gold medallists and two world record-holders are set to compete at the FBK Games &ndash; a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting &ndash; in Hengelo on Sunday (6).
Pole vault world record-holder Mondo Duplantis will be raring to go after his 23-meet winning streak came to an end at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Gateshead at the end of last month. Battling tough conditions, the 21-year-old from Sweden gave the bar a slight nudge on his final attempt at 5.80m &ndash; what would have been a winning height &ndash; and it came down, meaning victory went to two-time world champion Sam Kendricks.
Kendricks won&rsquo;t be in Hengelo, but Duplantis will have one eye on the US vaulter&rsquo;s meeting record and Dutch all-comers&rsquo; record of 5.91m.
Olympic champion Thiago Braz and Dutch vaulter Menno Vloon, who set a national indoor record of 5.96m earlier this year, are also in the line-up.
Double world champion Sifan Hassan will return to the track on which she set a European 10,000m record of 29:36.67 last year and will again contest the 25-lap discpline. The Dutch distance runner has tested her form over a range of distances this year, clocking 8:33.62 for 3000m indoors, followed by 14:35.34 for 5000m and 2:01.54 for 800m outdoors. 
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Sifan Hassan in the Hengelo rain</div>
&nbsp;
Kenya&rsquo;s Daisy Cherotich, New Zealand&rsquo;s world finalist Camille Buscomb and Canada&rsquo;s Andrea Seccafien will all be hoping to emerge from the race with lifetime bests.
World 800m champion Halimah Nakaayi will open her 2021 campaign over her specialist distance. The Ugandan middle-distance runner takes on a quartet of Britons &ndash; Laura Muir, Kelly Hodgkinson, Jemma Reekie and Adelle Tracey &ndash; as well as Norway&rsquo;s Hedda Hynne and France&rsquo;s Renelle Lamote.
In the men&rsquo;s event, indoor sensation Elliot Giles lines up for his first outdoor 800m of the year, taking on fellow Brits Max Burgin &ndash; who set a European U20 record of 1:44.14 in Ostrava last month &ndash; and Daniel Rowden. Tony van Diepen, one of the Netherlands&rsquo; top performers at the World Athletics Relays Silesia 21, is also in the field.
Recent Montreuil winner Abel Kipsang goes in the men&rsquo;s 1500m where he&rsquo;ll take on Uganda&rsquo;s Ronald Musagala and Britain&rsquo;s sub-3:30 performer Jake Wightman.
<h3>Asher-Smith, Kerley and McLeod set to produce sprint highlights</h3>
Although she has raced there only once before, world 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith has fond memories of racing in Hengelo.
It is where, as a teenager back in 2015, she set her first senior national record over 100m, clocking 11.02. Six years on from that performance, and having bagged many more records and medals, the world 200m champion will be hoping for a sub-11-second clocking to improve on the 11.35 season&rsquo;s best she recorded when winning in Gateshead, running in heavy rain and into a -3.1m/s headwind.
Nigeria&rsquo;s world and Olympic medallist Blessing Okagbare, who has a season&rsquo;s best of 10.90, and two-time world 200m champion Dafne Schippers are also in the line-up.
World 4x400m champion Fred Kerley has so far this year produced his most impressive performances at 100m, clocking 9.91 and 9.96 in recent weeks. In Hengelo, however, he&rsquo;ll step back up to his specialist 400m discipline and will aim to improve on the 44.60 season&rsquo;s best he recorded in Doha last week. 
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Fred Kerley nabs his first career Diamond League victory in Rome</div>
&nbsp;
All four hurdles races in Hengelo promise plenty of excitement.
Olympic champion Omar McLeod, racing in Europe for the first time since September 2019, leads the 110m hurdles field. The Jamaican, who has a season&rsquo;s best of 13.11, will take on European indoor champion Wilhem Belocian, who will be making his 2021 outdoor debut, and USA&rsquo;s Devon Allen.
World bronze medallist Abderrahman Samba takes on Olympic bronze medallist Yasmani Copello in the men&rsquo;s 400m hurdles, while European indoor champion Femke Bol contests the women&rsquo;s event in what will be her first outdoor race over barriers this year.
World leader Jasmine Camacho-Quinn leads the entries in the women&rsquo;s 100m hurdles and will be keen to make up for her recent appearance in Jacksonville where she was disqualified for a false start.
The women&rsquo;s discus will be a clash of three global champions as Olympic champion Sandra Perkovic faces world champion Yaime Perez and 2015 world champion Denia Caballero. 
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Sandra Perkovic, winner of the discus at the Hanzekovic Memorial in Zagreb</div>
&nbsp;
The three women were all in action in Doha last week with Perez coming out on top in a close contest. The Cuban threw 63.75m while Perkovic managed 63.60m and Caballero recorded 63.00m. Perkovic went on to win in Montreuil with a season&rsquo;s best of 66.11m, but the Croatian still trails Perez (68.99m) on this year&rsquo;s world list.
All three medallists from this year&rsquo;s European Indoor Championships &ndash; Maksim Nedasekau, Gianmarco Tamberi and Thomas Carmoy &ndash; will renew their high jump rivalry in Hengelo. Olympic champion Derek Drouin and Oceania record-holder Brandon Starc add further depth to the field.
Elsewhere, African champion Ruswahl Samaai features in the men&rsquo;s long jump, Botswana&rsquo;s Isaac Makwala leads the men&rsquo;s 200m entries and Belgian record-holder Cynthia Bolingo starts as favourite in the women&rsquo;s 400m.
Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics

Five world champions, four Olympic gold medallists and two world record-holders are set to compete at the FBK Games – a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting – in Hengelo on Sunday (6).

Global champions and world record-holders ready to clash in Hengelo

If there is an image to epitomise the camaraderie within the pole vault, the photograph of Mondo Duplantis holding an umbrella over Sam Kendricks to protect him from the Gateshead elements would be it.
In far from ideal conditions for any discipline, let alone one which requires athletes to launch themselves skyward, some of the world&rsquo;s best demonstrated how the show must go on, whatever the weather, at the Wanda Diamond League season opener in North East England on Sunday (23). Battling heavy rain, a strong blustery wind and cool temperatures, the USA&rsquo;s two-time world champion Kendricks handed Sweden&rsquo;s world record-holder Duplantis his first defeat since the 2019 World Athletics Championships &ndash; held in slightly different conditions in Doha &ndash; thanks to a second-time 5.74m clearance.
Both athletes had entered the competition at 5.30m, with Duplantis seeking a 24th consecutive victory and Kendricks looking to build on his win in Dessau just two days earlier. After first-time clearances at that height, they passed at 5.45m and then soared clear on their initial attempts at 5.55m. Also choosing to miss 5.65m, as the field took it in turns to shelter each other from the rain, Kendricks achieved 5.74m on his second go, while Duplantis had one try at 5.80m after two 5.74m failures. At first it seemed as though Duplantis had it, but as the 21-year-old hit the mat and looked up to the bar, it wobbled and fell, ending that winning streak which dates back to October 2019.
But these athletes have got each other covered, and not just in a literal under-an-umbrella sense. The unity in the event is nothing new and just as they share in each others&rsquo; successes &ndash; the <a href="https://twitter.com/WorldAthletics/status/1228626241382748160" target="_blank" rel="noopener">scenes after Duplantis&rsquo; world records last year</a> springing to mind &ndash; it&rsquo;s that togetherness in trickier times which paints a fuller picture. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Get a guy that holds an umbrella for you like <a href="https://twitter.com/mondohoss600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mondohoss600</a> does for <a href="https://twitter.com/samkendricks?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@samkendricks</a> ☔ 📸: <a href="https://twitter.com/Diamond_League?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Diamond_League</a> <a href="https://t.co/XdEP4Wf5b4">pic.twitter.com/XdEP4Wf5b4</a>
&mdash; World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) <a href="https://twitter.com/WorldAthletics/status/1396538794875174919?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 23, 2021</a></blockquote>

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 &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a military man, I understand that hardship brings guys together - shared hardship especially,&rdquo; said Kendricks, a first lieutenant in the US Army Reserve. &ldquo;There was more honour in the event today than there would have been any other day and Mondo almost stole the show with that crisp 5.80m jump, but every time the conditions are weird it exaggerates mistakes and that bar fell and he understands the game. That&rsquo;s just what happens and I came away with the victory, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean I am necessarily on the same level with Mondo right now, I just got in his blind spot today.&rdquo;
The image of Duplantis tightly gripping the umbrella handle to keep the shelter over Kendricks was quickly shared around social media and the world silver medallist was gracious in defeat.
&ldquo;The conditions were what they were, but I just wasn&rsquo;t able to adjust quickly enough,&rdquo; Duplantis explained. &ldquo;I would have loved to be able to get over that last bar, I felt that I was really close to it and I thought it was going to stay up, but it didn&rsquo;t. I&rsquo;m healthy and in one piece right now, after some conditions which are not the safest to jump in, so that&rsquo;s the positive to take away from it.&rdquo;
Asked about the camaraderie &ndash; which was also shown in the women&rsquo;s shot put with Chase Ealey pictured holding an umbrella over Sophie McKinna &ndash; he added: &ldquo;The grip is so important in what we do so we were just trying to make sure that our poles didn&rsquo;t get wet, because it can be really dangerous if you have a little water on your grip. You don&rsquo;t want to slip, especially not when that pole is bending and you&rsquo;re high in the air. It wasn&rsquo;t hard for me to hold an umbrella.&rdquo; 
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 For the athletes, perhaps it was an essential and unassuming gesture, but for the wider world, it was another example of the respect athletes have for each other.
Just the day before, Duplantis had shared another heart-warming story at the pre-event press conference, as athletes traded tales about their school days. Asked about his worst ever school report, Duplantis replied: &ldquo;When I was in middle school we were able to pick between Spanish and French and I remember at the time, I was 13 or 14 years old, so I wasn&rsquo;t jumping that high. Renaud (Lavillenie, France&rsquo;s former world record-holder) was the best in the world so I thought I would take French so that if I was ever able to compete against him, I could speak French and be able to say a few words to him. But the class started at 7am so I slept in most of the days - it didn&rsquo;t really work out that well and I never learned French!&rdquo;
Had they both been competing in Gateshead, and Duplantis had mastered the language, perhaps those words would have been: &ldquo;Je te couvre.&rdquo;
Jess Whittington for World Athletics
Lead photo by&nbsp;Matthew Quine / Diamond League AG

If there is an image to epitomise the camaraderie within the pole vault, the photograph of Mondo Duplantis holding an umbrella over Sam Kendricks to protect him from the Gateshead elements would be it.

How the world's best vaulters have got each other covered

There might be a new kid &ndash; make that new sensation &ndash; on the European block in the showpiece event of the 2021 Wanda Diamond League season opener at Gateshead on Sunday (23), but there was a warning for Sha'Carri Richardson today from the British rival who is relishing the prospect of lining up for the women&rsquo;s 100m with the &ldquo;funky world champion&rdquo; legend pinned on her vest on home ground for the first time.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m much, much stronger,&rdquo; revealed world 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith at the eve of competition press conference for the Muller Grand Prix.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve just had so much more time to work and I&rsquo;m much stronger physically now, much more technically proficient. I&rsquo;ve been doing things that my coach has been hoping I could do for many years.
&ldquo;Hopefully I&rsquo;ll be able to do them off the bat, but with me things tend to come together at the champs. So it&rsquo;s going to be a very exciting summer.&rdquo; 
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 Everything came together nicely for Asher-Smith at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, in the form of a silver medal in the 100m in a national record 10.83 and then a gold in the 200m, also in a British record of 21.88.
So if an even stronger version of the 25-year-old can make her presence felt in the north-east of England tomorrow, then Richardson might not have it all her own way in the locked and loaded taster of what might be to come in the Olympic women&rsquo;s 100m final in Tokyo, 5,766 miles and 10 weeks away.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve only just stopped doing over 300 abdominal exercises a day in training in the last week or two,&rdquo; revealed Asher-Smith, who last week opened her season with a 200m win in 22.56 in Savona, Italy.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been an incredibly hard winter. I&rsquo;m so excited to be racing because it&rsquo;s a respite from training.&rdquo;
Some respite.
In Richardson, the 21-year-old Texan who has been tearing up the US tracks with sizzling early season clockings of 10.72, 10.74 and 10.77, Asher-Smith faces a sprint phenomenon hailed in one British newspaper headline yesterday as the &lsquo;biggest since Bolt.&rsquo;
Having taken her bow on the European circuit with a comfortable 22.35 win in the chill of Ostrava on Wednesday, Richardson tests her considerable credentials against not just the strength of Asher-Smith but that of the other two medal winners from the 100m final in Doha: Jamaica&rsquo;s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, a three-time world champion at the distance, and bronze medallist Marie-Josee Ta Lou of Ivory Coast.
It very much has the feel of the 1993 sprint showdown, originally mooted for Las Vegas but staged at Gateshead with an extra stand imported from the Silverstone motor racing circuit, between Linford Christie and the US speed merchant who preceded the Briton as Olympic 100m champion, Carl Lewis.
Christie prevailed in 10.08, breaking Allan Wells&rsquo; 14-year-old track record, with Lewis a distant third in 10.22. A month later the Briton took Lewis&rsquo; world title in Stuttgart.
Asher-Smith boasts an unbeaten record on the Gateshead track, having won her 200m heat and final at the English Schools&rsquo; Championships in 2011. Ten years on, the history graduate refuses to be phased by the enormity of the senior test facing her in what could be cold and damp conditions.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a stacked race,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m very fortunate to be part of a cohort of incredibly talented women.
&ldquo;This is the start of the Diamond League season and I think it&rsquo;s the start of a match up that&rsquo;s going to be replicated in a number of different Diamond League races.
&ldquo;I saw Sha'Carri&rsquo;s race at Mt SAC (where Richardson ran 10.74 into a -1.1m/s headwind in the heats and 10.77 into a -1.2m/s headwind in the final) and technically it was a very nice bit of sprinting to watch. It&rsquo;s nice to see someone put everything together in such a technical way but I have to always back myself as well." 
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 Speaking at a later press conference, Richardson confirmed that she intended to tackle both the 100m and 200m at the US trials next month.
&ldquo;For us, the trials is a mini-Olympics in itself,&rdquo; she said.
Richardson&rsquo;s last 100m defeat dates back to her eighth-place finish in the final of the 2019 US Championships, and since then she has racked up 10 wins at the distance.
&ldquo;Every time I step on the track I&rsquo;m trying to do something I haven&rsquo;t done before,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;The expectation is nothing new to me, I just have to block it out, remember my craft and every time I step on the track execute in the best way I can. If I win, that&rsquo;s the bonus.&rdquo;
As for being hailed as a new Bolt, Richardson reflected: &ldquo;Well, I haven&rsquo;t seen that but when I do see that I&rsquo;m definitely going to still be shocked &ndash; even though I do these things and it&rsquo;s my time.
&ldquo;I guess I&rsquo;m as shocked as much as you guys (the media) when I step on the track and do the things that I do. But to hear things like that just shows that people see not only potential in me but they see greatness in me.&rdquo;
Sitting along from Richardson, her former Louisiana State University track and field team colleague Mondo Duplantis nodded in agreement. At 21, the Swede has already proven his greatness as the pole vaulter who has soared highest in history.
That came on his last appearance in Britain, his 6.18m clearance indoors in Glasgow in February 2020. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the best performance so far in my career, so when I step back in the UK it&rsquo;s a pretty good feeling,&rdquo; said the world silver medallist, who will be seeking his first 6 metre clearance of the outdoor season when he faces fellow Doha medal winners Sam Kendricks and Piotr Lisek.
The men&rsquo;s 1500m features another stellar young Nordic star in the track and field firmament: Norway&rsquo;s Jakob Ingebrigtsen. The double European indoor and outdoor champion will be making his season debut against the in-form Australians Ollie Hoare and Stewart McSweyn. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s cool to see the Australians are doing so well and running as fast as they are,&rdquo; acknowledged the 20-year-old, who has yet to decide whether to attempt an Olympic 1500m-5000m double.
Britain&rsquo;s Laura Muir remains unsure whether she has the 800m as well as the 1500m in her sights for Tokyo. Back on home soil after a long spell of training and early-season racing in the US, the double world indoor medallist could trouble Christina Boxer&rsquo;s ancient (1984) 1500m track record of 4:00.57.
&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t rule it off the cards,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll see what the weather is like but I feel like I&rsquo;m in good shape.
&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m in PB shape. I&rsquo;ve been running a few PB sessions. My PB is 3:55.22, so if I can get close to that, or better, that would be fantastic.
&ldquo;I think that&rsquo;s certainly the ballpark that I&rsquo;m in at the moment.&rdquo;
Simon Turnbull for World Athletics

Some of the world's best athletes look ahead to the series opener at the Muller Grand Prix

Duplantis, Richardson and Ingebrigtsen get set for strong Diamond League start in Gateshead

Joshua Cheptegei has Daniel Komen&rsquo;s 3000m world record firmly in his sights at the 60th edition of the Golden Spike in Ostrava, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting, on Wednesday (19).
The video of that astonishing run, in which Komen clocked 7:20.67 in Rieti, Italy in September 1996, is one the 24-year-old Ugandan knows well.
&ldquo;Ever since I started running, I&rsquo;ve been watching it three or four times (a year), and this year I&rsquo;ve been watching it five times,&rdquo; said Cheptegei at the press conference on Tuesday. &ldquo;I still really can&rsquo;t believe it. What he did was really special and most of the big icons in the sport, the likes of Kenenisa (Bekele), (Hicham) El Guerrouj, Haile (Gebrselassie) tried it, but it was untouchable and that shows you how special the record is.&rdquo;
The key question for Cheptegei, however, is whether he also sees it that way?
&ldquo;I believe it&rsquo;s not untouchable,&rdquo; he said.
The Ugandan said he was &ldquo;satisfied&rdquo; with his fitness ahead of tomorrow evening&rsquo;s attempt, in which he will be paced by Australia&rsquo;s Stewart McSweyn.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m hopeful the weather is okay, it should be (possible to break) the Ugandan record, which is 7:26, and of course the final one is the world record &ndash; 7:20 is not easy, it&rsquo;s one of the hardest records and that&rsquo;s why it&rsquo;s not been broken for the past 25 years, but I&rsquo;ll run fast as long as my legs will carry me.&rdquo;
Cheptegei believes the pandemic was a blessing in disguise for his performances last year, allowing as it did a period of uninterrupted training and the freedom to chase world records without having to worry about preparing for championships. He set the 5000m world record of 12:35.36 in Monaco in August before breaking another of Bekele&rsquo;s records in Valencia in October, clocking 26:11.00 for 10,000m.
If he adds the 3000m record he will become just the third man in history &ndash; after Paavo Nurmi and Henry Rono &ndash; to hold all three world records at once, but it will be a tough ask, given no other athlete besides Komen has ever broken 7:23.
Another world record-holder, Mondo Duplantis, will compete in Ostrava for the first time on Wednesday and the pole vault kingpin admits there&rsquo;s a question mark lingering over his likely performance.
&ldquo;I did do a home meet at (Louisiana State University) but it was more of a last-second training meet, it wasn&rsquo;t part of my schedule,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Now I&rsquo;ve got to step it up a bit and go after the big stuff. It&rsquo;s our opening meet, it&rsquo;s nerve-wracking, it&rsquo;s exciting, and I think we don&rsquo;t know what to expect. We&rsquo;re just going to out there and try to jump high.&rdquo;
Duplantis cleared 5.90m in that first outdoor competition of the year but he has since been over six metres in training.
&ldquo;I feel good, training is good but it&rsquo;s hard to tell until we have a meet,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to compare what I do in training to a meet. It&rsquo;s a whole different mentality when it comes to a competition but the things I&rsquo;m doing in training now are better than I&rsquo;ve ever been. This is my first meet from a full approach so there should be a little bit of rust.&rdquo;
Duplantis welcomed the news that 1500 fans will be allowed into the stadium on Wednesday evening. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t realise how lame it is when you go from these crazy meets with people watching you to no one watching you,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always liked the pressure and I&rsquo;ve always liked the spotlight.&rdquo;
Sam Kendricks, the reigning world champion, will take on his good friend in Ostrava and he&rsquo;s confident it can help him surpass his current best this year of 5.86m.
&ldquo;Mondo always brings the best out of me,&rdquo; said Kendricks, who is also relieved to have fans back in the stands at the event where he holds the meeting record of 5.93m. &ldquo;You see the crowd is deserving of a spectacle and you want to give it to them. Having this energy and attention on us makes us do better.&rdquo;
<h3>Best time of year, says Taylor</h3>
There is another clash to savour in the men&rsquo;s triple jump where two-time Olympic champion Christian Taylor faces the man most likely to stand in his way in Tokyo: Hugues Fabrice Zango. Taylor had a best of 16.52m on his most recent outing in Eugene off a short run-up, but he&rsquo;s coming to Ostrava ready to stretch his legs. 
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 &ldquo;Before was a short approach and (with) a lot of training, but now we&rsquo;re ready to begin,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I chase competition, I really want to compete because training every day can get boring. This, for me, is the best time of year.&rdquo;
Zango broke the world indoor triple jump record with his 18.07m in Aubiere, France, back in January and he opened his outdoor season with 17.40m earlier this month in Montpelier and he&rsquo;s also expecting better in Ostrava.
&ldquo;This (was a) good entry (competition) but for me it was not a big meeting,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Tomorrow will be the first meet where I will give it all. This winter (after) I jumped the world indoor record, my mind is open. For me, there is no limit. I know exactly what I have to do tomorrow.&rdquo;
US sprint star Sha&rsquo;Carri Richardson will aim to break 22 seconds for the first time in the women&rsquo;s 200m in what is her first race on the European circuit, and the 21-year-old felt no ill-effects after the long journey to the Czech Republic.
&ldquo;Even if I did have jetlag I wouldn&rsquo;t use that as an excuse, I&rsquo;m feeling good,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I fell in love with the 200 before the 100, I like to show people I can be a 200 runner as much as a 100 runner.&rdquo;
Richardson confirmed she will attempt to make the US Olympic team at both distances next month and she&rsquo;s not ruling out the possibility of the sprint world records of 10.49 and 21.34, which have stood to Florence Griffith-Joyner since 1988.
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think they&rsquo;re impossible,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Records are there to be broken.&rdquo; 
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 In Ostrava Richardson will face two-time world champion Dafne Schippers, who will run her first individual race of the year.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m always excited to run against the fastest girls in the world,&rdquo; said Schippers. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to see new talent and I&rsquo;m really excited to race.&rdquo;
<h3>Vetter looking for another lucky punch</h3>
Johannes Vetter will be the star attraction in the men&rsquo;s javelin and he arrives fully content with his current fitness. &ldquo;Training is going really, really well but I don&rsquo;t want to throw far in training, I want to do it in competitions,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There is a lot to do before Tokyo but competitions are the best training.&rdquo;
Vetter launched an astonishing 97.76m German record in Chorzow last September and he admits he&rsquo;ll be trying hard to reproduce such magic this season.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sure how hard it will be to recreate, the positions during that throw were really good and it&rsquo;s always down to small details which are really hard to train, develop and stabilise. I think I&rsquo;m in a good way now, the last competitions were at a really high level and I think, I hope, it&rsquo;s a matter of time before I have one more lucky punch in a big competition. The most important thing is to stay healthy, especially in Olympic season.&rdquo;
Anderson Peters will also be in the field and the world champion is relieved to be back in competition mode after missing the entirety of 2020, forced to remain in Grenada for much of the year due to travel restrictions. He was also rehabbing following surgery on his left knee in October 2019.
Cathal Dennehy for World Athletics

Joshua Cheptegei has Daniel Komen’s 3000m world record firmly in his sights at the 60th edition of the Golden Spike in Ostrava, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting, on Wednesday (19).

World 3000m record not untouchable, says Cheptegei

World record-holders Monto Duplantis and Joshua Cheptegei, along with world U20 record-holder Sha&rsquo;Carri Richardson, will compete in the Czech Republic for the first time in their careers when they line up at the Golden Spike, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting, in Ostrava on 19 May.
This year&rsquo;s Golden Spike will be the 60th edition and the line-up of top names already announced for the competition will ensure that the meeting will be a memorable one.
Duplantis, the Male World Athlete of the Year, will have one eye on breaking the meeting record in the pole vault.
&ldquo;Ostrava will be my first outdoor competition in Europe and I am really looking forward to jumping for the first time in the Czech Republic,&rdquo; said Duplantis, who will compete against two-time world champion Sam Kendricks in Ostrava. &ldquo;My training and preparation back home in Louisiana has gone very well so I feel confident and hope for good conditions.&rdquo;
Cheptegei, who last year set world records over 5000m and 10,000m, will step down to the 3000m in Ostrava. His best for that distance is 7:33.26, but the meeting record of 7:31.66 looks to be within reach for the world 10,000m and cross country champion from Uganda.
Richardson has already started her year in fine form. She sped to a lifetime best of 10.72 over 100m in Miramar last month, then clocked a season&rsquo;s best of 22.11 over 200m one week later, just 0.11 shy of the PB she set last year.
The 21-year-old will contest the 200m in Ostrava and will face multiple world and Olympic 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and two-time world champion Dafne Schippers.
Canada&rsquo;s world and Olympic medallist Andre De Grasse is confirmed for the men&rsquo;s 100m, while three-time world indoor champion Pavel Maslak will go in the 400m.
World record-holder Barbora Spotakova and European indoor shot put champion Tomas Stanek are among the other leading Czech athletes who&rsquo;ll be in action on 19 May. Spotakova will take on fellow Czech javelin thrower Nikola Ogrodnikova, while 2017 Diamond League winner Jakub Vadlejch will contest the men&rsquo;s event.
Other confirmed Czech stars include two-time world 400m hurdles champion Zuzana Hejnova, long jumper Radek Juska, middle-distance runners Jakub Holusa and Filip Sasinek, and decathlon specialist Adam Sebastian Helcelet.
As was announced last week, world hammer record-holder Anita Wlodarczyk and 2017 world javelin champion Johannes Vetter are also confirmed to compete in Ostrava.
The Golden Spike was granted an exemption from the Czech Republic&rsquo;s ban on holding mass events, and the meeting is permitted to welcome 1500 fans into the stadium.
Organisers for World Athletics

World record-holders Monto Duplantis and Joshua Cheptegei, along with world U20 record-holder Sha’Carri Richardson, will compete in the Czech Republic for the first time in their careers when they line up at the Golden Spike, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting, in Ostrava on 19 May.