Duplantis 'incredible for the sport' says NZ pole vaulter Olivia McTaggart

RNZ News

4 days ago

Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis, known as Mondo Duplantis.
Photo:
FREDRIK SANDBERG / AFP
New Zealand pole vaulter Olivia McTaggart says having a front row seat to one of athletics biggest super stars has been inspirational.
McTaggart continued her impressive form by finishing second at the latest World Athletics Continental Tour Gold series event in Budapest Wednesday morning.
Not long after her event, Sweden's Mondo Duplantis continued to take men's pole vault to another level at the Hungarian Grand Prix meeting.
Duplantis broke his own pole vault world record with a clearance of 6.29 metres - the 13th time he has set a new world mark.
The double-Olympic champion improved on his previous record by one centimetre, surpassing the mark he set in Stockholm in June.
The 25-year-old first broke the world record in 2020, with his leap of 6.17 beating the previous record set by Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie six years earlier.
McTaggart said everybody knows when Duplantis enters a stadium.
"Oh yeah you do for sure, especially with his intros he gets that little bit louder of a cheer. And then when he's going for those world records, the stadium just absolutely lights up, that's what he's able to do.
"He's an absolute phenomenon and he's been incredible for the sport and is just reaching those absolute new heights every time and there's really no limit on that guy, we don't know what he's going to get up to."
McTaggart missed his record on Wednesday but was sure there will be more.
"I was on the way back on the bus and I saw the results and realised he got the world record, unfortunately I wasn't in the stadium but he's only 25 so he's got a bit to go in his career and there'll be many more records that I will be able to see in the future I'm sure."
McTaggart, who is the same age as Duplantis, first met him about eight years ago before he started dominating the sport.
"We were both little 17 year-olds in the early days at a few German competitions. He's super down to earth and he chats to all of us and we can sit down and have lunch at different competitions and meets when all the pole vaulters are in the same area.
"So down to earth, great guy and for how well he's done and the success he's got, he's humble beyond belief so it's pretty impressive."
Pole vaulting is in the Duplantis family. His father Greg is a former pole vaulter and his sister Johanna competed in Budapest, finishing eighth in one of her biggest competitions to date.
"It was cool for her to get that experience and to be here with her brother, giving her a little bit of advice I'm sure and to see him win the world record."
Olivia McTaggart
Photo:
Simon Stacpoole / www.photosport.nz
McTaggart cleared 4.67m on Wednesday morning, behind the winner Tina Sutej of Slovenia who crossed at a height of 4.73m at the Istvan Gyulai Memorial.
Fellow New Zealander Imogen Ayris finished sixth in Budapest with a height of 4.51m.
Last month McTaggart produced the performance of her career in winning the Diamond League event in London with a lifetime best of 4.73m.
"I had a 71, 73, and now a 67 today and today was actually my fourth biggest height so it's good to see that I'm getting back up in the upper quartile of my jumps in my career. The consistency and first attempts are just placing me a lot higher lately, which is awesome."
Why are things clicking?
"A lot of what this comes down to is just consistency and being able to be injury free for a while. I've got a really good programme and working with my coach on just getting faster, stronger, fitter, and jumping higher with my technique. We just needed a little bit of time to get that consistency in training, I've never been training better.
"I think it's also my mentality and there's a maturity that's really come into my competitions, which is just staying a lot more calm and controlled. I've always wanted to be process over outcome-driven but hadn't quite got there in how to execute it and I think I've finally found what that is for me to be able to stay consistent and feel confident in competition and believe myself to be able to do it."
McTaggart spends four or five months a year training at Loughborough University in the heart of the East Midlands, where her British coach Scott Simpson is based.
Simpson has been coaching McTaggart and fellow Kiwis Imogen Ayris and Eliza McCartney since late 2023. He also coaches British pole vaulter Molly Caudery, the 2024 world indoor champion.
"She was coached by him originally and then us Kiwis kind of invaded and now he's got four of us," McTaggart laughs.
"He's sort of renowned as one of the best pole vault coaches and Athletics New Zealand were looking for a new coach so it all made sense, we came over to Loughborough to try it out, he came to New Zealand for a little bit. He did really well to get the three of us to the Olympic final last year."
McTaggart's next big event is the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo next month.