How Mondo Duplantis plans to 'fix' Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone's Diamond League woes

How Mondo Duplantis plans to 'fix' Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone's Diamond League woes

Abigael Wafula 13:30 - 05.09.2024

Mondo Duplantis has offered a solution for Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone after she was eliminated from the 200m and 400m in the Diamond League Meeting final.

Mondo Duplantis has offered to fix what happened to Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone by organising a 400m race with her following his triumph over Karsten Warholm in the 100m duel in Zurich.

The pole vault world record holder challenged the 400m hurdles world record holder to a 400m race in Brussels with the hope of easing the hurt of being removed from the 200m and 400m at the Diamond League Meeting final.

McLaughlin-Levrone had been entered in the 200m and 400m at the Diamond League Meeting in Brussels but an online uproar saw her being removed from the start lists. The American has yet to race in any Diamond League race which is one of the requirements of being eligible to compete in the final.

“I can do something like this again…I heard that Sydney got kicked out of Brussels, so, if she wants to race maybe a 400m like we’ll do an extra event in Brussels the day before or after…maybe we fix that,” Duplantis told reporters at an interview.

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Duplantis added that he went into the race with a lot of confidence and knew he was destined for a win. He enjoyed the atmosphere of racing against world record-holder Warholm.

The reigning Olympic pole vault champion added that it was a new thing for him and he was surprised by the crowd that went to cheer them.

“It’s really sweet and I had the confidence that I could always do it. All I knew was that I was fast and I could run a pretty good 100m. At the 60m mark, I knew I had the win and then when I got to 80, my legs started becoming heavy and I begged them not to give up and we tried hard till the end,” Duplantis said.

“The crowd was amazing, especially for a one-on-one head race, I mean this was completely new and I think it was very innovative and I’m very thankful for the organisation. I think we really put on a great show and I hope everybody enjoyed it because it was very fun,” he added.

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