Three of the world’s most accomplished pole vaulters will be competing in their own…



In the absence of any high profile sporting events taking place around the globe due to coronavirus, three of the world’s most accomplished pole vaulters — Mondo Duplantis, Sam Kendricks and Renaud Lavillenie — will be competing against each other in the Ultimate Garden Clash on Sunday from 5-6 p.m. CET.
The event will be streamed on world athletics’ Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channels.

Sweden’s Duplantis is the world-record holder, the USA’s Kendricks is a multiple world champion and France’s Lavillenie took gold at the 2012 Olympics.

They won’t actually be in the same place but rather taking part from France, Mississippi and Louisiana, weather permitting.

“I’m ecstatic to be able to compete again, especially against Sam and Renaud,” Duplantis told worldathletics.org. “Since it’s unknown what other competitions we will all have together, we definitely are going to enjoy this and have a good time with it.

“Also, winning this is crucial because I don’t like losing to them very much.”

Added Lavillenie, “This is a superb opportunity to see the best jumpers in a new competition format showing their love for their sport with a competition when most other sports are off.

“And because we are all at home, we have no excuses to miss this international home competition.”

Like the other sports, track and field has been hit hard by the virus. Diamond League meetings have been canceled and the pinnacle for pole vaulters, the summer Olympics, has been postponed from this July and August to almost identical dates in Tokyo in 2021.



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