One of them flies with a stick in his hands over a slide suspended more than six meters above the ground. The other frantically runs all the distances between the 1,500m and the marathon.
“They are two completely different sports,” says the American-Swedish world record holder. “We just work on the same field.” But despite that, they’ll be keeping tabs on each other when they start playing at FBK Games in Hengelo next weekend. As super athletic people, they really recognize something in each other.
About the author
Eric van Likerveld has been writing about Olympic sports such as speed skating, athletics and rowing since 2016.
Because both are special. Hassan caused a sensation in Tokyo with her gold medals in the 5,000m and 10,000m and bronze in the 1,500m. To that, she added a stunning debut at the London Marathon this spring. Despite her brief pause to stretch her gluteus muscle, she won. “This is very impressive,” Duplantis said Thursday during a virtual press conference, which he gave from his parked car.
On the contrary, Hasan admired the way the American-born son of an American father and a Swedish mother commanded pole vaulting. “I’m a huge fan,” she said earlier today. She landed at Schiphol Airport fresh from Utah, where she is training, and stopped in Amersfoort for the press on the way to Hengelo.
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Sometimes it seems as if Duplantis is honing the world record at will. He’s improved it six times since 2020, every inch. Every time he touches a nice reward belongs to the world record. The last time he broke his own record was in February of this year when he reached 6.22m indoors in Clermont-Ferrand. “He jumps a world record every time. Hasan laughs.”
Hassan, 30, is returning to the 400m track at the FBK Games after entering the marathon. I ran the 10,000m on Saturday evening, followed by the 1,500m on Sunday. She did not contest that last distance for two years.
She can’t quite predict what’s in her legs, mainly seeing it as a boost to her body with a World Cup goal in August in Budapest. There she wants to compete for gold again on the 5,000 and 10,000m and she could use some speed.
“quiet, calm, calm”
In the run-up to the London Marathon, Hassan was very nervous. Will you handle the switch to this long road race well? She didn’t have any idea. I’ve now experienced that the opposite, from road to job, can be more difficult. For the marathon, she had to backtrack. Its summary is “Calm, Calm, Calm”. On the track, she has to do her best and it’s not easy. “It’s very difficult mentally.”
Physically too by the way. It is not for nothing that many runners allow themselves to stumble to the ground after finishing. “Every time I see Sivan finish, it makes me happy to choose pole vault,” Duplantis says with a smile. He doesn’t have to go that deep. After sprinting for about 45 metres, it is important for him to work his way over the bar with surgical precision. It’s not necessarily easier than the 10,000m, but it’s less stressful on the heart and lungs.
Hasan has the talent to run many events on the track. She started her career in the 800 metres, and has shifted course to longer and longer distances, each of which runs great for her.
separate class
Expanding his horizons is not an option for Duplantis. He was still running as a freshman, but even so he didn’t accept last year’s challenge from Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce to run against her. And as long as fierljeppen – pole vaulting – is not Olympic, there are no pole vault-related disciplines in an athletics stadium. He believes that this is not a loss. He is dedicated to his craft, calling it wonderful and bizarre. “There is no such thing as pole vault. We are in our own class and I love it.
However, Duplantis draws inspiration from Hassan’s sometimes miraculous results because, as the son of a pole vaulter and decathlete, he knows full well what it takes to excel in athletics. What Hassan does is particularly physical, but especially mental. How she manages to push herself over and over again is unprecedented.
