World record-holder targets history in front of home crowd, while athletes who shone in Oslo aim to keep up momentum on the next Diamond League stop
Mondo Duplantis is hoping to make his “biggest dream” come true by breaking his own pole vault world record in front of what will be a partisan Swedish crowd at the Bauhaus Diamond League meeting in Stockholm on Sunday (June 15).
The 25-year-old has broken the record no fewer than 11 times now, most recently with a clearance of 6.27m at the All Star Perche meeting in France in February, and has created history on his way to Olympic and world titles. He hasn’t managed to reach new heights in the city he calls home, though, and with the weather conditions set to be perfect, he is planning to change that.
“My biggest dream now – and I feel like the only thing that I’m missing – is to break the record here at Stockholm,” he said. “It’s the thing that I can’t get off my mind a little bit.”
Expectation follows Duplantis wherever he goes but the spotlight is never brighter than when he is competing on home turf. Fresh from having a set a meeting record of 6.15m at the Bislett Games in Oslo earlier this week, he is taking his next assignment particularly seriously.
“I would say it’s like a mini championship for me,” added Duplantis, who was born in Louisiana but competes for Sweden and has an extended Swedish family, including his mother. “[That’s the] kind of pressure that I put on myself. I have a lot of my family here, pretty much all of my family, from both sides. So that raises the pressure quite up a bit as well.
“In track and field, you don’t really get that type of home field advantage and that kind of feeling that much. But here I’m able to really have that, which definitely comes with some added pressure. But I think it’s super nice too, because it feels like I’m representing something that’s a little bit bigger than just me when I’m on the track.”
Duplantis will be up against the likes of Emmanouil Karalis, Sam Kendricks, Kurtis Marschall, Ernest John Obiena and Menno Vloon.
The latest stop on the Diamond League programme is promising plenty of fireworks elsewhere, too, with a mouthwatering men’s 400m hurdles also in prospect.
World champion Karsten Warholm created the headlines in Oslo with his run of 32.67 that lowered his 300m hurdles world best but, as in Norway, he will be up against Olympic champion Rai Benjamin and bronze medallist Alison dos Santos.
On the women’s side, Femke Bol has a habit of winning in Stockholm and she will be going in search of her fifth consecutive victory in this meeting, not to mention her meeting record of 52.27. This will be her third race of the outdoor season, having won the Rabat Diamond League and the recent FBK Games in Hengelo. It will also be the latest sign of the effectiveness of her new technique that involves attacking the opening hurdle with her weaker right leg lead.
In the men’s 800m, Emmanuel Wanyonyi will be in the thick of the action again following the season’s best of 1:42.78 he recorded in winning in Oslo. The Olympic champion will face Algeria’s Paris bronze medallist Djamel Sedjati, who won in Stockholm 12 months ago, once more. A stacked field also features European champion Gabriel Tual, Wyclife Kinyamal, and the American pair of Josh Hoey and Bryce Hoppel.
In the women’s race, Swiss record-holder holder Audrey Werro has the fastest time in the field so far this year (1:57.25) but will be up against world champion Mary Moraa, world indoor champion Prudence Sekgodiso, Olympic 1500m bronze medallist Georgia Hunter Bell and her fellow Briton Jemma Reekie.
Julien Alfred is another Olympic champion who has opted to test themselves in both Oslo and Stockholm, the 100m gold medallist from Paris opening her season over the distance on Thursday night with a run of 10.89. A repeat of that performance would see the Saint Lucian take down Ivana Privalova’s meeting record of 10.90, which has stood since 1994. Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith and Dina Asher-Smith, second and third in Oslo, are also in action again, as is Daryll Neita. The men’s 200m, meanwhile, will see Cuba’s Reynier Mena aiming to follow up on his win in Oslo.
After a remarkable men’s 5000m at the Bislett Stadium, a race won by emerging talent Nico Young’s US outdoor record of 12:45.27 victory and also included George Mills’ European-leading British record of 12:46.59, there will be plenty of attention on Swedish record-holder Andreas Almgren.
The home hope will have Mohamed Katir’s European record of 12:45.01 in mind, but will face a stern test to beat a field that includes Olympic 1500m champion Cole Hocker and Kuma Girma, who clocked a PB of 12:46.41 in Oslo. Mills, meanwhile, will test himself over a 1500m event that is not part of the Diamond League programme.
There will be British interest in the women’s 3000m, too, where in-form youngster Innes Fitzgerald will make her Diamond League debut.
The women’s 400m threw up a brilliant finish in Oslo and USA’s Isabella Whittaker and Norway’s Henriette Jaeger will face each other once again. Whittaker came out on top with her PB of 49.58, with Jaeger clocking a Norwegian record of 49.62. Britain’s world indoor champion Amber Anning, third in that race, features again – as does Ireland’s Rhasidat Adeleke and Lieke Klaver of the Netherlands.
Former world record-holder Kendra Harrison is part of a women’s 100m hurdles field that also includes Ackera Nugent and two-time world indoor champion Devynne Charlton.
Away from the track, Olympic champion Tara Davis-Woodhall will be looking to make her mark in the women’s long jump, but it won’t be easy given that her opposition includes the likes of world champion Ivana Spanovic, two-time world champion Malaika Mihambo, world indoor champion Claire Bryant and European indoor champion Larissa Iapichino.
The women’s high jump contest will be of the highest quality, too, given that it will feature all of the Olympic medallists from Paris. World record-holder Yaroslava Mahuchikh takes on world indoor champion Nicola Olyslagers and former world champion Eleanor Patterson.
Another Olympic champion in action is Jamaican men’s gold medallist Roje Stona, but former world champion Kristjan Ceh has shown himself to be the man in form in recent days with a string of throws over 72m. Daniel Stahl, a two-time world champion, will have the support of the home crowd, but they will all have to face the challenge of Australian Olympic bronze medallist Matthew Denny, who produced the second-longest throw of all time with 74.78m earlier this year.
