"I heard that Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone got kicked out of Brussels"- Mondo Duplantis offers to race American in 400m after defeating Karsten Warholm

Mondo Duplantis offered to race Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone in the 400m after the latter was deemed ineligible to compete in the Diamond League finals slated to be held in Brussels on September 14 and 15. The organizers invited the American athlete to make her first track appearance after the Paris Olympics in the 400m and the 200m at the Brussels Diamond League.

However, McLaughlin-Levrone was deemed ineligible to compete in the event as she did not participate in a single Diamond League event during the Olympic year. Diamond League CEO, Peter Stastny released a statement about the same and said:

"It is not about allowing a specific athlete to compete or not. It is about rules and criteria which must be fulfilled by all to becoming eligible to compete at the WDL Final. Ms McLaughlin-Levrone does not fulfill those criteria, either by accumulating enough points or receiving a wild card. "(as quoted by LetsRun.com)

After defeating Karsten Warholm in the 100m in Zurich, Mondo Duplantis spoke about competing against Sydney McLaughlin-Levorone in the 400m after hearing about her ineligibility at the Brussels Diamond League.

" I think we really put on a great show. I hope that everybody enjoyed it because it was very fun. I could do something like this again. I heard that Sydney got kicked out of Brussels so maybe she wants to race a 400, we’ll do an extra event in Brussels the day before or the day after. We'll fix that," Duplantis said.

Mondo Duplantis on his decision to run the 100m after an unbeaten streak in pole vault

Mondo Duplantis and Karsten Warholm at the Wanda Diamond League 2024 (Source: Getty)

Mondo Duplantis spoke about his decision to go out of the way from his pet event, the pole vault to run the 100m against 400m hurdles world record holder, Karsten Warholm in a promotional video with Puma. The Paris Olympics gold medalist shed light on his strengths and his excitement for the contest.

“I think my strength is that I'm fast and I mean I think if that's what's required to run a 100 meter, my expectations are to win. I'm just trying to get to that line before he does,I know what I am and I know what I can do and I know that I step up to the occasion. I think he's probably just underestimating my speed in general. That's the nature of the event and that's what this is. This is just all about speed," he said.

After breaking the world record at the Silesia Diamond League for the 10 time, Duplantis will be in action in Zurich on September 5, 2024, in the men's pole vault.