Time is running out for Renaud Lavillenie. The Frenchman (37 years old) still has two weeks – until June 30 exactly – to achieve the Olympic minimums in the pole vault (5.82 m) and he hoped to validate his participation in the 2024 Paris Olympics this Saturday, June 15 at Le Bourget. The mission failed.
The Olympic champion (in London in 2012) stopped after three missed attempts upon entering the competition at 5.60 m. He explained that he was injured during his jump of 5.70 m at the Pierre-Bénite meeting a week ago.
“Even though I don’t have any pain, my brain has been racing all week. I’m missing that little spark that would have allowed me to move the pole correctly.”he said on the tarmac of the Air and Space Museum at Le Bourget where the competition took place.
“The minimums were going to be a formality…”
“Obviously, what I felt at Pierre-Bénite was a big blow to me because I was coming back well and the minimums were going to be a formality for me in the days to come”he assured.
The Clermontois still has two opportunities to achieve the minimums, first at the Toulouse meeting (next Saturday), then at the French championships in Angers (June 28 – 30). “I’m clearly not going to give up because it’s not my nature, it’s not when I’m closest to it that I’m going to stop”assured the former world record holder (6.16 m in 2014).
If he achieves his goals, he will still have to be selected by the French Athletics Federation among the three French pole vaulters entered, to participate in his fourth Games. Only one other pole vaulter, Thibaut Collet, has crossed the minimums so far. Baptiste Thiry and Robin Emig, finalists at the recent European Championships in Rome, have until June 30 to succeed in their turn.
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Before this competition and his injury, Lavillenie had managed to jump 5.72 m in May in Poland, during his second competition since his return from injury. Having undergone surgery on his hamstrings, he remained ten months without participating in a competition.
