Spectacle in Belgrade! World athletics stars at Serbia Open, we'll watch prelude to Olympics battle

Photo: Tanjug/AP

The 6th Serbia Open Indoor Meeting , an international athletics events, will be held on Wednesday, February 24, starting at 5:30 pm. This competition is on the list of the world series of meetings and has a bronze status. It is also important to note that this meeting will be the last chance for athletes to qualify for the European Atletics Indoor Championship in Torun, Poland, to be held at the beginning of March.

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The athletics hall in Banjica, Belgrade would have been be small to accommodate all the fans of "the queen of sports" who would have liked to watch the best athlete in the world, the Olympic record holder, as well as other global and European stars. Due to the situation with Covid, fans won't be allowed inside the venue, but the Athletics Federation of Serbia will provide a live broadcast from the meeting on RTS and via a live stream on Telegraf.rs.

The main and the biggest star of the meeting will be the best athletics competitor in the world and the world pole vault record holder, Swede Armand Duplantis, who spoke ahead of coming to Belgrade about how much his life changed since breaking the record of Sergey Bubka.

"Breaking the outdoor record was a dream come true. I still find it hard to believe that I am above the legendary Bubka on the list."

Asked how the pandemic affected his training in 2020, Duplantis replied:

"When the pandemic first hit, it was really hard to train. All training facilities were closed and we didn't have adequate training for several months. When I returned to Sweden in June, the training resumed, but considering the two-month break before that, it took time for everything to back to normal."

Finally, Duplantis pointed out that his biggest goal in 2021 are the Olympic Games and to attack the world record. He also mentioned that he is coming to Serbia for the first time and that he is very excited about the competition in the Athletic Hall in Banjica, about which he has heard all the best.

To make matters even more interesting, the current Olympic champion in this discipline, Thiago Braz from Brazil, will compete against Duplantis, so we will witness a kind of prelude here in Serbia, to the battle for the gold that will take place during the Olympic Games.

(Telegraf.rs)