Duplantis, a world record holder of the pole away from the stereotype

The Swede, who broke Lavillenie's record, with 6.17, does not respond to the physical typology that characterizes the athletes of this discipline

There are several reasons why Armand Duplantis Do not be world record holder of pole vault. But none is valid, because this 20-year-old boy is from Saturday, in the Polish city of Torun, within the international indoor track circuit, recordman of the specialty with 6.17. Enter the capica (6.16) than the French Renaud Lavillenie, his friend and a kind of mentor, older brother, had obtained, on February 15, 2014, in Donetsk, in the native Ukraine of Sergei Bubka. His contest was very clean and brief. The first attempt is 5.52, 5.72, 5.92 and 6.01. And the second, 6.17.

We say that there are some reasons, all false, so that Duplantis is not a world record holder. For starters, the boy doesn't seem like a pertiguist. Actually, he doesn't even look like an athlete. This year has gained some weight. But it still lacks a homologous muscular definition to that of its rivals, and is quite loaded on its back, shrinking its 1.83 erect. It will be said soft, fragile … Unable to hold a five-meter-long and two-kilogram artifact freehand during the race, and to exert the necessary force to bend it in order to gain momentum to attack the lath.

To continue, although there is some other case, he is too young for a discipline such as the pole. It's true that Sergei Bubka broke his first world record in those same 20 years. But it was Bubka, nothing less. Bubka, the great universal and all-time referent of the pole. And it did not jump 6.17, but 5.85, extended the same year from 1984 to 5.85; 5.88; 5.90 and 5.94. You exceed six meters a year later.

Duplantis, who already tried the record a few days ago in Dsseldorf, where he jumped six meters, the divine border, becomes, and in an Olympic year, the current phenomenon of athletics. An attractive figure by inslita, receiving all the sympathy without dykes that inspire the kids, and all the unreserved admiration that the geniuses arouse. Let's wait for new and upcoming prodigies, because the precocious monarch plans to jump, in the remainder of the season indoor, in Glasgow (da 15), Livin (19) and Clermont-Ferrand (23).

Family of pertiguistas

Duplantis has dual citizenship. He is a Swede born in the United States, in Lafayette (Louisiana). If the children come with a loaf under his arm, he did it with a pole, because his father, Greg, American, was a good specialist, with a mark of 5.80 in 1993 (and his maternal grandmother salt 3, 80 in 1958). His mother, Helene Hedlund, a former Swedish heptathlete (5,314 points in 1983), to which Armand is very close, is the reason that the new record holder has adopted that nationality. Swedish athletics, which has illuminated numerous stars, currently has in Duplantis the largest of them, heir to the 15 male world record holders known to the Nordic country. One of them also of pole. Kjell Isaksson broke three times, in 1972, the world record. I left it at 5.59.

Duplantis, the antithesis of the flammable and outgoing athlete in his jubilation and his celebrations, affirms that jumping is for him something natural, almost instinctive (genetic?). His progress has been amazing and he could not help but announce the record. Some data: jump 5.30 at 15 years; 5.51 at 16; 5.90 at 17. At 18 it rose to 6.05, junior world record (under-20 is said now), of course, and was European champion. Last year, at 19, he only reached six meters and was world runner-up in Doha in his duel with American Sam Kendricks, both with 5.97.

For a few years now, world brands are considered absolute brands indoor if they are better than outdoor. The case has only occurred twice, and both in the pole, with Lavillenie and Duplantis. Interestingly, Bubka also got a better mark indoors than outdoors (6.15 by 6.14). But then the records were separated. Those 6.14, achieved in 1994 at Sestriere altitude, where they were rewarded with a Ferrari Testarossa, remain the best open pit brand.

Duplantis almost looks out to a superhuman record: 6.20. A barrier in which one did not really think, even in Bubka's times, if only because the Soviet-Ukrainian thought economically about the records, from centimeter to centimeter, lengthening deadlines too much.

The poles are for winter. And for the summer?