Star Metro - 'I'm ready to roll' - hungry Duplantis still motivated

The US-born Swede set his 15th pole vault world record in March, clearing 6.31m in Sweden, and is one of the star attractions in whatever meeting he appears.

The two-time Olympic champion and triple world gold medallist will compete in Monaco's Diamond League on Friday on the back of victory with 6.13m in Paris and a rare defeat on home cinder in Stockholm.

Since first 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 nine straight seasons.

"Time has already gone really, really quickly," Duplantis, who made his Diamond League debut in 2017, said Thursday.

"I've actually been jumping for a long time especially at this level. It's pretty hard to comprehend."

- Like the grind -

While courtesy and politeness are often rolled by the 26-year-old out in answer to questions about whether he still had the desire to compete in one of the most techically demanding events of track and field, Duplantis did not mince his words in Monaco.

"I want to be as good as I can for as long as I think it's fun to compete at this level," he said.

"As long as I like it and as long as I like the grind of everything, then I imagine that I'll continue to compete to jump.

"As far as right now I feel like there's a lot of hunger and motivation still in the tank, so I think I'm going to be going for a while.

"This first nine years went scarily fast, like too fast. I'm trying to soak it all up and enjoy it because it's really insane how fast everything goes."

- New home turf -

The men's pole vault was not initially on the programme in Monaco, the 10th of the 15-leg Diamond League circuit.

But Duplantis, as a new resident of the Principality, got down on bended knee with the organisers to include his event.

"It's going to be my first time jumping here as a resident, so home turf," he said.

"I really had to push hard, to fight hard for us to be added as an extra event.

"I'm just really happy about it. I didn't want to miss out on all the fun.

"I'm really happy to be part of the action. Hopefully I have some good stuff to give -- I really want to jump hard, especially as I pushed hard to be able to get this to even happen!"

The blip in Stockholm -- his first defeat in three years -- came shortly after his wedding, but it was a result Duplantis insisted had made him "more motivated and more hungry".

While admitting to feeling "mentally a little off" after the wedding to Swedish model and social media personality Desire Inglander, Duplantis said he was now "so focused and refreshed".

"I felt ready to start jumping again and really to start jumping high.

"I'm really ready to roll. I haven't been this fired up to jump, I feel, like in a long time. Sometimes you need a bit of a wake-up."

A.Lavoie--SMC