Renaud Lavillenie at the Areva Meeting - Samsung Diamond League press conference, 7 July 2011 (© Errol Anderson)
It’s Renaud Lavillenie. It’s Paris. It’s going to be another home Pole Vault victory in the Samsung Diamond League tomorrow – isn’t it?
The man in question is clearly hoping so, but having won at this meeting last year, and the year before, he is fully acquainted with the peculiar wind tunnels created within the Stade de France. And so is naturally circumspect.
“Tomorrow is going to be about who deals best with the conditions,” he confirmed at a press conference ahead of the Meeting Areva. “We will have to see if there is a good or a bad wind.”
While Lavillenie will not be the only home athlete feeling the pressure of home expectation tomorrow – “Allez Christophe Lemaitre!” – he is taking his preparations very seriously for a competition in what has become perhaps his favourite athletics venue.
As well as his Stade de France victories, of course, he is able to cherish the recent memory of his exploits in Bercy, where he retained his European indoor title with a vault of 6.03 metres, breaking the national indoor record of 6.00m held by the 1996 Olympic champion Jean Galfione.
“It was a great competition because it was the major gold of the indoor season and it was great to have such a success here,” he recalled, looking very much the man in form in faded jeans and a top with the word ‘Paris’ emblazoned on it. “I hope I can have more good sensations like this in future.”
Consistency
Lavillenie is drawing encouragement from his form so far this year. Although 2007 World champion Brad Walker of the United States, the fourth highest vaulter of all-time outdoors with 6.04m, leads this year’s world list with 5.84m, the 24-year-old Frenchman has the next three best efforts of 5.83, 5.83 and 5.82. Although the season has not been without its disappointments – fourth place in the Doha, a no height in New York and fifth place in the European Team Championships, Lavillenie is clearly pleased with his sequence of 5.80-plus vaults, and his recent victory at the Lausanne Samsung Diamond League established him as joint leader in the Diamond Race.
“The Diamond League is important because it shows who is the most consistent vaulter in the world. Last season I won it, and it is one of my main goals again this year.”
Asked if he had next year’s London Olympics on his mind, he replied with a grin: “No. I’m more focused on two months’ time in the World Championships than one year’s time and the Olympics.”
“I am surprised to see so many of my opponents jumping well, jumping over 5.70,” he said. “But at the moment I am the only one who has jumped over 5.80 more than once this year.”
Surprise about Walker; not thinking about Hooker
“It was a surprise to me that my friend Brad Walker didn’t qualify for this year’s World Championships, but I hope to meet him many times in competition this year.”
Asked about his rivalry with Australia’s World and Olympic champion, Steve Hooker, the Frenchman replied that Hooker was currently “a little bit of a mystery” to him, adding: “I know he is in Europe for two weeks, but I don’t know where. I think we will meet at the Monaco Diamond League, which will be our first meeting of the season.
“I know that he has had an injury, but I have not been thinking about him in competition because he has not been there.”
A daunting level
This season, Lavillenie says, has been particularly challenging in terms of its timing.
“The preparations have been different and I have had to be quite patient because competition started in May and there was a lot of competition in June, so I had to make a lot of my training early. So I was not very, very consistent in my competition. But now I think I have started to find my level.”
And as the world knows, that level is dauntingly high. Asked if he had a figure in mind about how high he might yet vault, Lavillenie smiled again. “It is open,” he replied. “There is not a limit. Maybe it will be 6.07. Maybe 6.04. We will see…”
Whatever the case, the immediate future holds more home support for this affable competitor, who greatly values the atmosphere created by his fellow countrymen and women. “Sometimes I play with the public to make sure that everything will be OK in the jump,” he said.
Whatever the vagaries of the Stade de France design, one competitor looks ready to receive his own helpful updraft…
Mike Rowbottom for the Samsung Diamond League
