Pole vaulting is enjoying a golden age. \u201cIt\u2019s fantastic how high people are jumping these days,\u201d says Karalis on the eve of the Wanda Diamond League final at the Allianz Memorial Van Damme. \u201cBy jumping over 6 metres, you might still only finish fourth or fifth. Or I might even break the world record and still only finish second.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Karalis is referring to the incredibly thrilling competition in Zurich a week ago, where he cleared 6.20 metres for the first time in his career and then went on to attempt 6.32 metres \u2013 the world record height. \u201cI didn\u2019t manage it, but I felt those were good attempts, that one day it might be possible.\u201d But then there\u2019s always Mondo Duplantis, who still manages to set the bar a little higher than his rivals. In Zurich, the Swede ultimately triumphed with a jump of 6.25 metres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Isn\u2019t it frustrating having to compete against someone like Duplantis, who has \u2013 so far \u2013 won everything? \u201cNo, I\u2019m glad I\u2019m living in \u2018his\u2019 era,\u201d says Karalis. \u201cMondo shows everyone what\u2019s possible. In doing so, he\u2019s broken down mental barriers for me and many other pole vaulters. We\u2019re enjoying a fantastic era, with some incredible jumps. That\u2019s good for the sport, for the public, for everyone. Mondo pushes me, but I push him too to become even better.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Will Karalis manage to beat Duplantis on Friday? \u201cWe both have our strengths. He\u2019s faster, I\u2019m stronger. But there\u2019s no single best way to be the best pole vaulter. Bubka and Lavillenie back in the day were different types too. And of course, I want to win competitions and trophies. We\u2019re rivals, but also \u2013 and above all \u2013 good friends. Whatever the outcome on Friday\u2026 afterwards, Mondo and I will have a nice glass of wine together at the bar.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Emmanouil ‘Manolo’ Karalis is brimming with confidence after clearing 6.20 metres in...","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":7268,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"city":[],"class_list":["post-7352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brussels-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brussels.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brussels.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brussels.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brussels.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brussels.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brussels.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7353,"href":"https:\/\/brussels.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7352\/revisions\/7353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brussels.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brussels.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brussels.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brussels.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7352"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brussels.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=7352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}