Mondo Duplantis is back in the season, having celebrated well after the WC gold and world record at Eugene.
It all started with him playing at home with his 17th straight win with a 50th jump over six metres.
Now the search for a hundred begins.
I wonder if there is anyone out there that is more superior.
Yes, Mondo won this comeback with 37cm and celebrated the anniversary with 50 jumps over six metres.
I don’t know if this is his biggest margin of victory ever, but it can’t be far off anyway.
It’s light years ahead of everyone else, even though there are all the best out there.
Six meters has become a bit of a disgrace to Mundo and he has only grumbled after one competition this season. That’s when it stopped at 5.92 at the Diamond League gala in Eugene in late May and broke off at 6.07.
He thought that was a bit bitter, hence there are only three jumpers in the world this year, with the exception of Mondo, who jumped outdoors above the 5.92 he stopped at the time.
At WC in Eugene, his 27cm margin of victory was the largest ever and it seemed that his opponents were no longer rivals, but rather his most fan club.
They all stay in the front row when Mundo’s solo show begins.
Now it stops at 6.10, but given the conditions, it shows that Mondo is in world record shape.
I wonder if it even needs any shape of tops.
He has a high lower level that doesn’t seem to matter.
He could set a world record every time he jumps, it seems.
It depends more on the weather than it does.
Serge Bubka has dominated pole vaulting for over a decade, but it has never been as superior as Mundo.
There were more six-meter jumpers in his time, who kept victory margins just under a decimal.
Yes, I really understand that the party organizers are bidding on each other to get the Mundo in their competitions.
They get value for money.
And a season that seems to have done it all already, half of it is left with a tight competition schedule as much of the festive competition squeezed into the breaks between WC and EC in Munich and the final Diamond League final in Zurich in the second week of September.
EC which looks more exciting than WC this time.
Munich’s massive Olympic Stadium makes Eugen’s Hayward Square feel like a warm-up arena.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Mundo sets a new world record there, too.
If the weather permits.
It’s been four years since my last European Championship in Berlin, which remains one of the greatest moments I’ve had with Mondo.
His great breakthrough.
According to Mundo himself, it is still the most important competition of his career to date.
On that balmy evening in Berlin, he went from novice to global leapfrog.
I’ll never forget when he set a junior world record after a junior world record, challenged by Russian Timur Morgunov who stopped at six metres.
Mundo 6.05 jumped and became an overnight superstar.
He improved his junior world record three times in the same competition and entered the six-meter club for the first time.
He is now back in Germany for his second gold medal in the European Union, and in Europe there are fewer contenders.
The only question is what is the size of the margin of victory.
Mondo jumps into his own division and rivalries start for him only when everyone else drops out.
It was exactly the same back in Chorzow, as opponents struggled and quickly disappeared into the wet, while Mundo looked like there was no bad weather.
It’s just a matter of getting used to it.
OOO
Now, Mundo is not alone at stake in Swedish athletics.
A week when Sweden took four medals in the JVM and a weekend where SM was in full swing.
Although the restroom was generally disappointing, it seems that the European Commission may be the opposite.
Anyway, gold is already a given.
I hope more.