Lievin (AFP)

Abandoned by most of the tenors of tricolor athletics, their eyes riveted on the Tokyo Olympic Games, the French indoor championships count on Renaud Lavillenie and Pascal Martinot-Lagarde to liven up the weekend in Liévin.

With the sequence of Olympic Games (July 31-August 9) -Euro (August 25-30 in Paris), the year promises to be busy for the executives of the France team and many of them did not hesitate to sacrifice winter, already hardly prized by some of the athletes. Some have made a total dead end on the indoor (Vicaut, Mekhissi, Lamote ...), others have contented themselves with rare appearances (Bosse, Lemaitre, Mayer, Bedrani, Gressier ...) before zapping the championships of France to head straight for the outdoor season.

These defections are due to the "specificity of the season", explained to AFP Patrice Gergès, the National Technical Director. "We had a 2019 season which ended late and the list of qualified for the Games will be defined on June 21. So the space is very short, there is work, regeneration, and everything is over tipping makes it more complicated to chain competitions in certain specialties, "added DTN.

The cancellation of the Indoor World Championships in Nanjing (China), originally scheduled for March 13 and 15 and postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus, also took away part of his interest in Liévin's meeting. The stakes will not be low for everyone, however, since the contenders for the Olympic Games have until Monday to join the enlarged list of selectables for Tokyo.

Indoor follower and multi-medalist on 60 m hurdles (silver in 2014 and 2016 and bronze in 2012 at the Worlds, gold in 2015, silver in 2017 and 2019 and bronze in 2013 at the Euro), Pascal Martinot-Lagarde n would have missed indoor competitions for nothing in the world. The European champion, 3rd at the Worlds in Doha in 2019, has not been unemployed since the start of the year with 4 meetings on the clock and 8 races to his credit.

- Thiam and Zango as "guest stars" -

He especially displayed a very good form with a time of 7:47 at the meeting of Liévin on February 19, very close to his personal best (7:45). He will have no opponent to match him to disturb him on the road to a 6th national title, Aurel Manga, 3rd of the indoor world championships in 2018, being far from his best level.

Bulimic about meetings, Renaud Lavillenie has also multiplied in recent weeks and he too arrives in Pas-de-Calais with the ambition to go high. Stripped of his world record by the Swedish prodigy Armand Duplantis (6.18 m), the Frenchman knows that at 33, he will have trouble finding this kind of altitude but his jump of 5.94 m succeeded February 23 in Clermont-Ferrand has shown that it would still be a client this season for podiums, after a failed 2019 exercise marked by its elimination in qualifying for the Worlds. In Liévin, he will have to be wary of his brother Valentin, finalist in Doha, even if he did not do better than 5.74 m in 2020.

Apart from PML and Lavillenie, the show will no doubt be provided by the Burkinabé Hugues Fabrice Zango. The member of the Artois Athletics club, protected by Teddy Tamgho, raised his African triple jump record to 17.77 m on February 2 in Paris, and would dream of stealing his indoor world record from his trainer (17.92 m).

Another prestigious guest: the Belgian Nafissatou Thiam. The Olympic heptathlon champion will line up for the long jump.

© 2020 AFP