Armand Duplantis in Stockholm (© AFP/Getty Images)
The best pole vaulters in the world are set to gather in Scandinavia for back-to-back clashes in the Wanda Diamond League next month.
World record-holder Mondo Duplantis, world champion Sam Kendricks and seven-time Diamond League champion Renaud Lavillenie will all meet at the Bislett Games in Oslo on 1 July before facing each other again three days later at the Bauhaus-Galan in Stockholm.
With almost 70 Diamond League victories between them, the three vaulters have dominated their discipline for much of the past decade, and will battle it out again in Oslo and Stockholm as they bid to qualify for the Wanda Diamond League Final in Zurich on 8-9 September.
Kendricks currently leads the qualifying standings, having beaten Duplantis in difficult conditions at the season opener in Gateshead last month. But Duplantis has jumped highest this year, clearing 6.10m in Hengelo earlier in June.
The trio will take on Norwegian brothers Sondre and Simen Guttormsen in Oslo, while Poland's world bronze medallist Piotr Lisek will also be on the runway in Stockholm.
Multiple world and Olympic 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce will make her Bislett Games debut next month. The Jamaican currently leads the world list with her 10.63 run in Kingston earlier this month, moving her to second on the world all-time list.
She’ll line up against 2017 world silver medallist Marie-Josee Ta Lou, USA’s Tokyo-bound Javianne Oliver, and Jamaica’s Natasha Morrison.
Stockholm’s Bauhaus Galan, meanwhile, will also see world champion Daniel Ståhl take on Jamaica’s world silver medallist Fedrick Dacres in the men's discus.
Organisers for World Athletics
