Daily Times

PARIS: World champion American hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Swedish pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis won the World Athlete of the year awards on Monday. McLaughlin-Levrone broke the world women’s 400m hurdles record twice while Duplantis set three new world highs this year. US-born Swede Duplantis claimed the award for the second time in three years with three world records in 2022 plus the men’s world indoor title in March and the world outdoor gold in July. “Going into the year, I had really high expectations of myself and I had some really big goals,” 23-year-old Duplantis said. “I wanted to win the world indoors, the world outdoors, the Europeans, the Diamond League final, and I wanted to break the world record a few times,” he added.

Both titles were claimed in world record heights of 6.20 and 6.21 metres respectively and he also sealed European gold in Munich. He won 18 of his 19 competitions, and vaulted six metres or higher 23 times. It was a first World Athlete of the year award for McLaughlin who clocked an astonishing 50.68 seconds in July obliterating her own world record by more than half a second. “All of my goals were accomplished this year,” McLaughlin-Levrone said. “We were able to accomplish everything we set out to do. It couldn’t have been any better,” she added.

‘Sky’s the limit’: The 23-year-old is billed as a once-in-a-lifetime talent and has hinted she could change discipline to the 400m flat. She will be one of the most closely watched performers at the world athletics championships in Budapest in August. “My coach thinks there’s a lot more to be done,” she said. “The sky’s the limit for sure,” she said in July. McLaughlin also won Olympic gold last year in Tokyo in a then-world record time.