Munich. Then he finally got on the stage.
The biggest star of athletics in the world, Mundo Duplantis, European Commission.
The only question was how far he would jump when he completed his unique trilogy of tournaments.
It was 6.06 and it was a new world show.
I wasn’t expecting anything else.
There is no dip in shape or bad days for this 22-year-old.
It was already sailing high above the entry height of 5.65, this final is over and it looks like Mondo’s competitions only start when the gold is finished and it reveals what he has to offer next.
Now, he’s setting the bar at 6.06, one centimeter higher than the championship record he set at the Grand Prix in Berlin four years ago.
And when he finally invited another audience just over six feet tall, it felt like a day at work.
That should be enough.
It’s a short distance from the world record, but it was as far as he wanted to go on this cold evening.
Although it looks almost silly by Mondo’s standards.
But when I look at the IAAF comparison tables on how the scores of different events are evaluated, it becomes even more clear how good 6.06 really is.
In the discus throw it corresponds to 72.10 meters, in the 100 meters it is 9.78 and in the long jump it is 8.66!
Three results were enough to win EC gold here in Munich, totally superior.
It is on a special level
It is possible to discuss these comparison tables a few centimeters here and tenths there, but in general they correspond to how the level of results appears in the different branches.
There are still a total of only 18 pole vaulters ever who have cleared six metres.
It can be compared to the disc dream limit of 70 metres, which is 28.
No, Mondo is so special that it’s easy to forget how good he really is.
Even when he’s not setting world records.
How many heavy titles will there be?
In exactly five months, Mundo has claimed three of the heaviest titles in athletics.
On March 20, I sat indoors in the heat of Belgrade and watched him jump home with the gold medal at the World Indoor Championships and end up setting a new world record with 6.20.
It was Sunday, March 20.
Four months later, I sat in the stands at the World Championships in Eugene and watched him jump 6.21, after a stunning display in front of the American crowd at Hayward Field.
WC Gold and the third world record in the same year.
And now here in Munich he has taken the European Championship gold in front of a German crowd that greeted him with one of the night’s biggest cheers.
How many heavy titles will there be?
I know very well that we only saw the beginning of a career that could be one of my greatest athletics careers.
Femke Paul’s third EC gold after running home with a pair of 400 and 400 hurdles and then finishing by breaking everyone else in the final stretch of the 4 x 400 metres.
What a phenomenon, the sunny EC Queen.
A question worth asking
I sat watching the women’s javelin throw as well, while Mundo sat and waited for his rivals to distance themselves.
A number of branches where the level of profit decreased in recent years.
And I thought of Sophie Flink, who had already reached the World Cup final in Moscow when she was 18 in 2013.
Then she threw 61.96, a score that would have sufficed for an EC bronze here in Munich and was just five centimeters away from the silver.
Then she disappeared into a cloud of casualties and operations, and today she surrendered.
But she is just one of the many young talents that has vanished on her way from junior to senior.
Erin Eckelund was a world class runner when she was 16 years old, but she trained and competed at the level of her heart.
Tilda Johansson is a more recent example.
She came back from injury, but was far from the world jump when she jumped 6.73 when she was 18.
In her case, it’s not too late, but isn’t there a lot of talent that has disappeared in Swedish athletics in the past decade?
Compare with Mondo who has never been hurt before and is trained in the United States by Father Greg and mother Helena.
It is a question worth raising.
