Mondo Duplantis broke the world record again in Belgrade... Now what?

"In my mother's hometown," Mondo Duplantis posted on Twitter next to a crying-with-pride emoji above a photo of a sign that has his new World record in Avesta, Sweden.

They're pretty proud in that town of Mondo and his mother Helena, who practically grew up at the local athletics track.

The sign reads '6.19 World Record', right under another with his name on it.

It's the record he set in Belgrade on 7 March, adding one centimetre to his own world record mark cleared in Glasgow in February 2020.

Duplantis is now the reigning Olympic and European champion and current world record holder, owning the top three marks in history indoor: 6.19m, 6.18m, 6.17m.

The outdoor record is his too, thanks to his 6.15m in Rome in September 2020.

And he's still only 22.

So what's next for Sweden's high-flyer? Plenty of unfinished business.

Mondo Duplantis aims at World crown

Next up for Duplantis, who recently undewent laser eye surgery to improve his sight, is the World Athletics Indoor Championships which just happen to be in the same Belgrade arena where he just set his latest WR.

Belgrade 2022 will be the first indoor Worlds since Birmingham 2018 after Nanjing 2020 was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

That means France’s London 2012 Olympic champion Renaud Lavillenie is still the reigning champion from when he cleared 5.90 four years ago to finish ahead of Sam Kendricks and Piotr Lisek.

Duplantis finished eighth on 5.70, but that was a long time ago in the history of pole vaulting.

These days, people don't just expect Duplantis to win. They expect him to win and break a world record and, after his latest exploits, hopes will be high that he can clear 6.20m.

Mondo, who had cleared six metres in his season debut in Karlsruhe early this January, spoke confidently after his 6.19 record on 7 March saying:

"I think I've tried 6.19m 50 times, I think that was the number. It's been a long time coming. I've never had a height that has given me so much trouble like that in my entire life and I've been jumping for a very long time, so it's a very good feeling.

"It was really hard-fought these past two years to get over that next barrier and so I'm really happy.

"I don't think this is the highest I'm ever going to jump. There's going to be a lot more to come.

"This is a really good place to jump. World Championships in two weeks is going to be an even better time to try to put something else higher up there. So I'm excited about that. I'm excited to come back to Belgrade."

The World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade run from 18-20 March.

Mondo Duplantis' busy schedule

Beyond Belgrade, there's plenty more for Duplantis to achieve.

After the indoor Worlds, he will defend his Diamond League title in the event's 13th season running from 13 May to 8 September.

In the midst of that will be his big target for the year, the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon from 15-24 July.

This is the only crown missing from his collection after Kendricks beat him into second place at Doha in 2019.

The American - who missed Tokyo 2020 after a positive Covid test - is the only man to defeat him since that reverse, on a wet and wild day at Gateshead last May where the athletes struggled to grip the pole.

This summer, Duplantis will also defend his European title in Munich after winning gold on German soil in Berlin four years ago.

Mondo Duplantis' World Records

Duplantis' 6.19m in Belgrade was the fourth world record of his career.

His first came in February 2020 when he put one centimetre on Lavillenie's previous record by clearing 6.17m in Torun, Poland.

A week later, he went even higher with 6.18 in Glasgow.

And in September of that year, he cleared 6.15m at the Rome Diamond League meeting to eclipse Sergey Bubka's outdoor pole vault world best of 6.14m set in July 1994.

Mondo Duplantis is ready for more, with the world record in peril every time he picks up a pole.