Duplantis ‘grinds’ for gold as stellar trio headline electrifying world indoors

NANJING, CHINA: Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis was the headline act as a trio of modern-day track and field greats starred on an electrifying night of action at the world indoor championships in Nanjing on Saturday.

Duplantis was pushed all the way by Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis in a battle royale before bagging a third world indoor pole vault gold with a best of 6.15m.

“We put on a good show for everybody,” said Duplantis. “It’s great to be pushed and I’m happy for Manolo (Karalis). I had to grind for it tonight.

“It’s good for me especially and it’s just great competition. It’s just such a higher level than what pole vault’s ever been, so it’s good. You just have to want it.”

It was a truly pulsating competition, echoed in the men’s 3,000m won by a hair’s breadth by Norway’s multi-medalled Jakob Ingebrigtsen, incredibly for his first world indoor title.

The victory kept alive his tilt at a first world indoor 1,500/3,000m double since Ethiopian legend Haile Gebreselassie achieved the feat in 1999. The 1,500m final is scheduled for 1215 GMT on Sunday.

“My competitors study me, but you have to race many times to be able to respond in all scenarios,” said Ingebrigtsen, who pipped Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi at the line in a dramatic, fast-finishing race.

“I’ve done a lot of racing but I’m not perfect. It’s all about learning. The more you race, the more you learn, so you can make the right decisions at the right point to increase the possibility of winning.

“I don’t enjoy the 1,500m warm-up, but the racing is a lot of fun, and that’s what I’m going to do tomorrow — have a lot of fun!“

The third of the stellar trio on show was Grant Holloway, the American claiming an unprecedented third successive 60m hurdles victory that