It will be so cool. It's a dream that comes true to together with my brother get to represent my mother's country. It's exciting, says Johanna Duplantis to Aftonbladet.
”It will be fun to jump at Stockholms Stadion again this summer and with the special atmosphere that is at Finnkampen. That I also get to do it together with Johanna makes it extra special”, says Armand Duplantis in a press release from Svenska friidrottsförbundet.
It's the first time that Johanna Duplantis gets to wear the Swedish national team uniform. She was selected for the team European Championship earlier this summer, but was forced to decline due to her civilian work. Now the 22-year-old could say yes when the national team captain Kajsa Bergqvist got in touch.
”Selected on her own merits”
It was a tough selection. A selection doesn't depend on what you're called in surname but it's about the results, says Bergqvist to TT and continues:
She is selected on her own merits and nothing else.
Johanna Duplantis has improved her personal record by 39 centimeters this season and with 4.39 meters she is Sweden's second best this year after Kajsa Roth (4.42), who also competes in Stockholm. On Sunday, the women's pole vault is decided.
Armand Duplantis recently set a world record for the 13th time in his career (6.29 meters) and the 25-year-old competes on Saturday.
Besides the siblings Duplantis, the blue and yellow Finnkamp team includes names like Daniel Ståhl (discus), Perseus Karlström (walking), Andreas Almgren (10 kilometers road), Maja Åskag (triple jump/long jump), Fanny Roos (shot put) and Vanessa Kamga (discus).
Abeba Aregawi is also selected as expected. The 35-year-old, who won the World Championship gold for Sweden on 1,500 meters in Moscow 2013, lives in Ethiopia and has not competed for the Swedish national team in several years.
Aregawi will run 5,000 meters on Sunday. Before that, the plan is that she will run the same distance in the Brussels Diamond League gala on Friday. This to try to qualify for the World Championship in Tokyo in September.
Start on Friday
Before the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro 2016, Aregawi was stopped from competing suspected of having taken the doping-classified substance meldonium, but was later acquitted because the levels of the banned substance were so low. Aregawi has since been away from international competition and had a child.
Finnkampen starts on Friday with 10 kilometers road. The other events are decided on Saturday-Sunday.
