Duplantis targeting World Indoors, will open in Reno

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Mondo Duplantis, the World U-20 record holder in the pole vault, will open his 2018 season at the UCS Spirit National Pole Vault Summit in Reno next week. 

Duplantis, a high school senior at Lafayette LA, is targeting the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Birmingham, England, March 1-4. 

Duplantis has been a fixture at the Reno Pole Vault Summit, but missed it last year to attend his brother's wedding. 

"I've been there every year of my life since I was 7 years old," Duplantis said. 

After Reno, Duplantis said he planned to jump at Louisiana State University "two or three times" to prepare for World Indoors. 

Duplantis, who competes internationally for Sweden, finished ninth in the world as a 17-year old at the IAAF World Championships in London last August. 

"In critiquing myself, I got a little bit physically tired (during the summer)," Duplantis said. "There was no real break in seasons from indoors to outdoors, and then all these other high school meets. My body couldn't handle it."

Duplantis reports that he "might have grown an inch," and that he is looking forward to getting his season started. 

"I don't think it will take too long for me to get back into my groove," Duplantis said. "But I certainly can't expect to make the same progression that I had last year."

In 2017, Duplantis made a rapid succession of personal-best bars and upped his own national high school record by 31 centimeters indoors (to 19-0.50). Then, outdoors, he vaulted 5.90m (19-4.25) at the Texas Relays.

In so doing, Duplantis rocketed from a high school phenom to a member of the world's elite. 

In the fall, he announced that he would not sign a professional contract but instead signed with LSU, where his mother and father both competed in college. His older brother Antoine helped lead the Tigers baseball team to the College World Series.