The best pole vaulters in the world are set to gather in Scandinavia for back-to-back clashes in the Wanda Diamond League next month.
World record holder Mondo Duplantis, world champion Sam Kendricks and seven-time Diamond League champion Renaud Lavillenie will all meet at the Bislett Games in Oslo on July 1st, before facing each other again three days later at the BAUHAUS-Galan in Stockholm.
With almost 70 Diamond League victories between them, the three vaulters have dominated their discipline for much of the last decade, and will battle it out again in Oslo and Stockholm as they bid to qualify for the Wanda Diamond League Final in Zurich on September 8th and 9th.
It is Kendricks who currently leads the qualifying standings, having beaten Duplantis in difficult conditions at the season opener in Gateshead last month. Yet it is Duplantis who has jumped highest this year, clearing 6.10m in Hengelo earlier in June.
The trio will take on Norway’s Guttormsen brothers in Oslo, while Poland’s World Athletics Championships bronze medallist Piotr Lisek will also be on the runway in Stockholm.
The Stockholm meet will also see reigning Diamond League champion Daniel Ståhl take on Jamaican rival Fedrick Dacres in the men’s discus, while Ståhl will also take on the likes of Andrius Gudzius and Lukas Weisshaidinger in Oslo.
The upcoming Bislett Games in Oslo on July 1st will be the fourth meeting of the 2021 Wanda Diamond League.
The 2021 calendar remains subject to change depending on the global health situation in the coming months.