MONACO: Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis insisted on Thursday he was unfazed by the lateness of the world championships in Tokyo, the Sept 13-21 event bringing the curtain down on a gruelling season.

The championships are generally held in August, with the exception of the 2019 edition in Doha, where it was pushed back to the last week of September in a bid to beat the suffocating heat in the Gulf state.

The 2027 world champs in Beijing will also be held in September.

But the unflappable double Olympic champion, speaking in Monaco ahead of Friday’s Diamond League meet, the 10th of the 15-meet elite circuit, put any fears of burnout in what is one of track and field’s toughest events to one side.

“I usually get better as the season goes on,” maintained Duplantis, calling the worlds the “peak”.

“I’ve had a lot of my best competitions in September, in the middle of September, like when we’re going to have the world championships.”

The worlds, Duplantis added, were a “super physical event”.

“You have to be physically primed. But also it’s very technical, and it’s very specific timing that you have to have in feeling with the pole.

Duplantis said that he would take four weeks off after Monaco before re-focusing on the latter end of the season.

Duplantis, with 39 Diamond League victories to his name, finished fourth and second in his two previous outings in Monaco, something the ultimate competitor was fully aware of.

“I feel like I have a little something bubbling to prove here,” said the 25-year-old, adding he would be targeting the meet record of 6.02m at the Stade Louis II. “I want to have every meeting record, I guess, and I feel that this is one of the ones that is missing.”

Wherever and whenever Duplantis competes, the weight of expectation is for another tilt at a world record.

That currently stands at 6.28m, Duplantis having delighted a home crowd in Stockholm three weeks ago, the 12th time he has improved the world record.

Duplantis insisted, however, that improving that mark was always a factor he took into consideration.

“I take what the day gives me because I feel like when I’m in good shape and everything lines up, I have good conditions and a lot of the controllables from my side line up, I have the confidence that I’m capable of it on the given day if the form’s there,” he said.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2025