Kurtis Marschall is hoping to parlay his bromance with Armand Duplantis into a breakthrough pole vault medal at the world championships in Budapest.
The great Swede would be delighted if that happened too, although both of them know the most likely scenario for the Australian would be one of the lower steps on the podium.
Unless the unthinkable happens, top spot is serial world-record breaker and defending champion Duplantis’s for the taking.
The pair have become firm friends, leading to the Australian and his coach Paul Burgess recently spending a couple of weeks training and hanging out with Duplantis in Stockholm.
“He has perfected that periodisation, all the training that goes into it,” Marschall told AAP.
“He’s just an exceptional athlete and the thing that differentiates him from the rest of us is he’s moving at 10 metres per second on the runway and the rest of us all hovering around 9.5.
“Things like that separate him from the rest of us.
“His technical model is amazing, he has been jumping since he was five years old so he’s got the jump numbers behind him.”
The bond between the pair goes well beyond the track and the gym.
“It helps that we share some common interests like golf and going out for coffees,” the laidback Marschall said.
“We’ve really enjoyed spending time together.
“We both have a good sense of humour and he really likes my coach who is pretty much the funniest guy on Earth.”
Despite being the reigning two-time Commonwealth champ, the 26-year-old Marschall readily admits he has underperformed until now when it matters most.
He no-heighted in the Tokyo Olympics final and did not advance out of the qualifying round at last year’s world titles in Eugene – with Duplantis going on to claim gold on both occasions.
But the 23-year-old – known throughout the track and field world as Mondo – is definitely a believer in Marschall.
“He wants to be a performer that can get it done on the big stage, and I know this year he’s coming in with more fire than he ever has because, inside, he thinks he’s been underperforming a little bit the past few years,” Duplantis said.
“Kurtis thinks he has what it takes to be there, and I think that he does also.
“So I’m excited about the championship, especially for him, because I think he wants to prove, not only to himself but everybody, that he’s in the mix for real.”
Marschall is looking for the big breakthrough to become just the fourth Australian to clear vaulting’s holy grail of six metres – after Olympic and world champion Steve Hooker, Dmitri Markov and Burgess.
And who better to gain valuable advice from than the man who’s cleared that height more than anyone in history – an amazing 66 times in all.
But even if Duplantis is in a different league to any other vaulter, wasn’t there a danger of being too generous to a Budapest rival, who’s had the best summer of his career with a 5.95m clearance in Sotteville-les-Rouen just over a month ago?
“That’s part of the community that we have in vaulting, you want the best for everybody,” Duplantis said.
“Of course, you want to win, but at the same time you want to see everybody achieve their full potential, especially if it’s a guy you are really cool with, one of your mates.
“If you see something that they’re doing that you could just help them just a little bit, those kind of things can go a long way. So that’s no problem for me.”
The truth is, of course, that Duplantis can afford to be generous as he’s so far ahead of his rivals with a world record-best of 6.22m.
But he’s not unbeatable as demonstrated by a rare recent reverse in Monaco, where Marschall was one of three who vaulted higher than him.
He talks respectfully of his other two Monaco conquerors who he sees as his main rivals – Filipino EJ Obiena and American Chris Nilsen.
But on his day, the only real opposition for the sport’s poster boy of the post-Usain Bolt era is himself.
“It gets easier in a little bit of a strange way,” Duplantis said of the pressure that comes with the profile and expectations.
“I’ve pretty much accomplished everything that you can as a pole vaulter, so a lot of the stuff now is kind of just the cherry on top. I don’t think I have so much to prove to everybody.
“Right now, the main focus is just making sure I can go to the competition, secure the gold and if I’m feeling well – which I think is a strong possibility – then take some shots at a new record.”
The men’s pole vault qualifying round in Budapest is on Wednesday (AEST) with the final on the third last day of the championships.