Mondo Duplantis and Katie Moon at the World Indoor Championships (© Getty Images)
Men’s pole vault
Timetable | 2024 world list | world all-time list | world rankings
In typical Mondo Duplantis style, the Olympic and world pole vault champion warmed up for the World Athletics Indoor Championships Glasgow 24 by attempting to improve his own world record.
At the All Star Perche in Clermont-Ferrand on 22 February – the same event at which he set a world record of 6.22m last year – the Swedish star achieved his first six-metre-plus clearance of the season, soaring a world-leading 6.02m.
He went on to try 6.24m – a height that would have added a centimetre to the most recent world record he set in Eugene in September – getting close on his second attempt.
Prior to that, the 24-year-old hadn’t hit the heights he’d hoped for – clearing 5.80m in Astana and 5.92m in Uppsala – but he heads to Glasgow as big favourite to retain the world indoor title he won for the first time in Belgrade two years ago.
That achievement sits on a CV that also includes two world gold medals and an Olympic title he’ll aim to retain in Paris. But first comes Glasgow – an event that sees Duplantis return to the scene of his second world record of 6.18m that he set in February 2020, just six days after he achieved the feat for the first time with a 6.17m clearance in Torun.
He has so far improved the world record on seven occasions and has soared six metres or higher a total of 75 times.
Glasgow gives him another opportunity to add to both of those tallies.
“I have really good memories of it (Glasgow),” he said. “I know that it’s a really good place to jump and I know that it’s a place that I can jump high. So, I’m excited about it.”
There are a number of athletes also keen to add to their major medal count in Glasgow.
USA’s Chris Nilsen is the other entrant to have cleared six metres so far in 2024, having gone over 6.01m in Vermillion in January and followed that with another six-metre clearance to win the US title. He’ll look to carry that form with him to the World Indoor Championships, an event at which he claimed bronze in 2022. He got silver behind Duplantis at both the Tokyo Olympics and World Championships in Oregon before bagging bronze in Budapest.
Two-time world champion and two-time world indoor silver medallist Sam Kendricks cleared a season’s best of 5.95m at the US Indoor Championships and followed that with a 5.93m Perche Elite Tour win in Rouen. He was third behind Duplantis and Thibaut Collet of France in Clermont-Ferrand.
While Ernest John Obiena, Philippines’ two-time world medallist and Asian record-holder with 6.00m, has won both his competitions in 2024, clearing 5.83m in Osijek and 5.93m in Berlin.
Poland’s Piotr Lisek is the fifth six-metre-plus vaulter in the field, having cleared 6.02m in 2019. The five-time world medallist has already competed at eight competitions this season, topped by his 5.82m clearance in Roubaix.
World fifth-place finisher Collet will want to build on the PB of 5.92m that he set in front of a home crowd to finish second to Duplantis in Clermont-Ferrand.
Women’s pole vault
Timetable | 2024 world list | world all-time list | world rankings
Competition is set to be fierce for the women’s title as the Olympic and world champion goes up against the two-time defending champion, the world leader and three other athletes who have also surpassed 4.80m already this season.
Britain’s Molly Caudery and New Zealand’s Eliza McCartney have traded the world lead so far in 2024 – Caudery cleared 4.83m in Val-de-Reuil on 28 January and McCartney then managed 4.84m in Lievin on 10 February, before Caudery improved to 4.85m to win the British title one week later and again to 4.86m in Rouen a week after that.
Caudery, the 2022 Commonwealth Games silver medallist, finished fifth at last year’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest where she cleared 4.75m.
She has improved her lifetime best by 25cm in the past year and will look to replicate that top form in front of a home crowd at the World Indoor Championships Glasgow 24.
“I need to re-evaluate my plans for the season as 4.80m was my target. I have already gone above and beyond, so of course the British record will be amazing and probably my new target,” said Caudery, with her sights on Holly Bradshaw’s national mark of 4.90m.
“At the Worlds, a medal will be my focus.”
McCartney, the 2016 Olympic bronze medallist, finished fifth at the World Indoor Championships in 2016 and fourth at the 2018 edition and now has the chance to continue that pattern to make it on to the podium in Glasgow.
But US duo Katie Moon and Sandi Morris pose formidable opposition. Moon won the Olympic title in Tokyo and followed that with two world titles in Oregon and Budapest, plus a world indoor silver medal in Belgrade. Morris got the gold on that occasion, clearing 4.80m to retain her world indoor title from Birmingham, and now she targets a hat-trick.
Moon won the US title earlier this month with a 4.80m clearance despite having experienced tightness in her achilles tendon in the lead up, while Morris also overcame an achilles injury a month prior to finish second there with 4.75m after opening her season with 4.82m in Reno.
The pair have clashed more than 70 times, with Olympic and three-time World Championships silver medallist Morris leading their head-to-head record, but they each have one win apiece from 2024 so far – Moon getting that US Indoor Championships win and Morris finishing top in Reno.
Canada’s Alysha Newman – the 2018 Commonwealth Games champion who claimed bronze at the 2014 edition in Glasgow – returns to Scotland fresh from a national record of 4.83m to win in Clermont-Ferrand.
Finland’s world bronze medallist Wilma Murto cleared 4.81m when opening her season in Kuortane on 6 January and most recently soared 4.80m to finish runner-up to Caudery in Rouen.
Jess Whittington for World Athletics
