Torun: Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis will head into the world indoor championships, which run from Friday to Sunday, confidently eyeing a fourth pole vault title, but there is a rival lurking in the wings potentially capable of springing a surprise.Emmanouil Karalis cleared 6.17 metres at last month’s Greek indoor champs, overtaking Sergey Bubka to go second in the all-time list.
While still some distance short of Duplantis’ newly-set world record of 6.31m, Karalis is himself not lacking confidence heading into Saturday’s competition in Torun, Poland. The question is whether the Greek could put a stick in the spokes of Duplantis’ well-oiled machine that has seen the US-born Swede dominate the sport over the last six years.
“I’m dangerous if I’m enjoying myself,” grinned Karalis, who had a half-decent attempt at 6.31m at the Greek champs. Duplantis called the Karalis’ succesful 6.17m vault “amazing”, adding his immediate reaction to it was “somewhere in the middle of shocked and not shocked”.
“He’s a huge talent and he’s been jumping amazing the past year, year and a half or so, especially. “But that jump was extra out of the ordinary. It was just really, really flawless and just really, really beautiful, honestly.
“That was very inspiring. And I’d be lying if I said it didn’t fire me up a little bit, put some fire under my ass.” Karalis said the lines between actual victory and performance satisfaction were sometimes blurred in an event demanding not only exceptional speed, strength and agility, but also a considerable level of technical nous. “Every athlete that is here wants to win. Everyone that is competing wants to win and win gold,” he said.
“I also want to win, but still, my main goal is to do the best that I can. If I know I gave everything on that specific day and still wasn’t able to win a medal, I’ll be satisfied.” Karalis added: “You never know what’s going to happen. That’s why we’re competing, and that’s why we have world championships and meetings.
