Lavillenie misses (again) the Olympic qualification, personal best for Collet in the pole vault

Still in search of the Olympic minimums (5.82 m), pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie failed again at 5.60 m on Wednesday in Montbonnot-Saint-Martin near Grenoble, during the “Perche des Alpes” meeting.

Lavillenie (37), who had already failed at the same height last Saturday at Le Bourget, only cleared 5.40 m on the second attempt. On his second attempt at 5.60 m, the 2012 Olympic champion was quite well above the bar but fell back on it. On his third try at the same height, the bar shook before falling.

Heavily strapped in the thigh after being injured during the competition at the Pierre-Bénite meeting, Lavillenie, who is attempting an impossible comeback after having undergone surgery last September for a partial rupture of a tendon in his hamstrings of the left thigh, appeared preoccupied, tense, then staring into space after his last failure.

After Clermont, Duszniki in Poland, Pierre-Bénite and Le Bourget, this was the pole vaulter’s fifth competition since his operation. After a zero in the first competition, he passed 5.72 m in Poland and 5.70 m in Pierre-Bénite, before failing at 5.82 m each time thereafter.

Collet aims for the heights

The French pole vaulter, Thibaut Collet, won the “Perche des Alpes” meeting on Wednesday in Montbonnot-Saint-Martin (Isère) with a jump of 5.95 m, the third best world performance of the year and the second outdoors.

Collet, who cleared this mark on his second attempt for his personal best, then attempted to clear 6.01m but stopped after failing on his first attempt.

I dream of jumping higher than that but I dreamed of taking this step here in front of our audience

Thibaut Collet

In the competition, Thibaut Collet, who displays a good level of form a few weeks before the Paris Olympic Games (July 26-August 11), secured his victory by passing 5.82 m, again on the second attempt. He won ahead of Gapençais Romain Emig, 2nd with 5.72 m.

“I am very happy to have achieved this performance, here at home. I dream of jumping higher than that but I dreamed of taking this step here in front of our audience, that of Grenoble», rejoiced Thibaut Collet who beat the record of his father, Philippe Collet, now 60 years old and who had cleared 5.94 m, indoors, in Grenoble.

“The steps follow each other. I check the boxes I wanted to check. We will have to work harder because we will have to do more at the Olympic Games. The working base is very solid. Now my record is 5.95 m. Now, I can say it officially, loud and clear, the next step is 6 m, 6.01 m to get the second French performance in history”he added.

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