Tomblaine, France – Renaud Lavillenie won his 11th consecutive Pole Vault competition Sunday (8) night at the “Meeting d’Athlétisme Stanislas-Nancy”, the fourth stop of the French “Pro Athlé Tour”.
Lavillenie has often mentioned how instructive it was for him to jump under any weather conditions, as external factors forced him to execute his jumps with a sound technique. Nancy provided the recent European champion another difficult training as he had to deal with huge swirling winds.
Using a reduced run-up, he opened his competition at a lower height (5.33m) than usual and managed to adapt his technique to the bursts of winds coming to his side at 5.53m. He needed two attempts to clear 5.63m, which was enough to beat Jerome Clavier (5.43m). The world leader (5.97m) leaped over 5.73m but that was all he could do.
“At 5.83, I had three good jumps, but the weather and the fatigue from all the recent conditions were too much,” the Frenchman explained. “What is important is that I’m confident I can jump high even when it’s difficult.” Now a clear favourite for the Olympic Games, Lavillenie assures that he is not over-confident. “I know that you can’t take anything for granted. I have my feet on the ground, and my coach and family are there to remind me to stay focused.”
by: Pierre-Jean Vazel
from: http://www.iaaf.org/news/newsid=65628.html
