CLERMONT-FERRAND – Despite a slow start to the season, Olympic pole vault champion Armand Duplantis said he is aiming to break his world record in Clermont-Ferrand five months before returning to France for the Paris Games.

Since 2020, the Swedish athlete has raised the world record from 6.16m to 6.23m, and was returning on Feb 22 to the indoor venue where he broke the record for the sixth time last February, clearing 6.22m.

The dedicated “All Star Perche” in central France comes less than two weeks before the men’s pole vault at the indoor World Championships in Glasgow.

So far this season, Duplantis has fallen well short of 6m in his two appearances, starting at Astana in January. His best jump was 5.92m at a competition named after him, the Mondo Classic, in Upsala, Sweden on Feb 6.

“I don’t think my first two competitions of the year reflected my real form,” the 24-year-old told AFP ahead of the All Star Perche which started after press time.

“I know that I’m in very good shape and also that I’m jumping very well.”

The figures do not lie but the Swede is not too concerned, adding that he is still confident largely because of the training that he has had since.

“My training is very good, at the level I want. Of course the first two competitions were a little frustrating, but these are very small things, easy to sort out,” he said.

“They were two completely opposite competitions. Kazakhstan was a difficult journey and my legs were really dead.

“In Sweden, I felt really good, in great shape, but I was a bit too pumped. It was as if I was trying to break the record when the bar was only at six metres.

“I’ve done some good training since then. I feel good, I feel confident, I feel strong, fast. I’m confident about what I can do and where I stand, and I know that I’m at a high level at the moment.”

Duplantis also said he plans to add 1cm to his world record at the French meet, organised by his friend Renaud Lavillenie, who was the 2012 Olympic champion and previous world record holder.

“Six metres 24! That’s the objective,” he said.

“But there are stages to go through before that. First you have to win and clear the bars at less than six metres.

“I think it’s possible, that it’s within my capabilities, and I want to show that this is the form I’m in, because I know I’m there. Of course I want to clear six metres again, I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.”

Duplantis added that he was looking forward to returning to the Maison des Sports in Clermont-Ferrand.

“You know it’s a track I feel comfortable on, where I’m able to jump well,” he explained.

“The configuration should be the same as last year, and it’s a configuration in which I jumped high, in which I know I can jump well, I don’t expect it to change this year.”

In other athletics news, a plan to eliminate foul jumps from the long jump event is to be trialled in 2024, World Athletics CEO Jon Ridgeon said earlier this week.

Ridgeon believes the discipline needs to get rid of the large number of foul jumps recorded to make it more appealing to the public.

“At the World Championships in Budapest last summer, a third of all the jumps were no-jumps, athletes stepping over the front of the take-off board,” he said on the Anything But Footy podcast.

“That doesn’t work, that’s a waste of time. So we’re testing, for example, a take-off zone rather than a take-off board, so we measure from where the athlete takes off to where they land in the pit.

“That means every single jump counts, it adds to the jeopardy of the competition, the drama of the competition.” AFP, REUTERS