Stockholm (AFP)
The 2012 Olympic pole vault champion Renaud Lavillenie matched his best performance of the season with a jump to 5.92m on Sunday at the Stockholm Diamond League meeting, won by Sweden's Armand Duplantis (6.02m).
As in Oslo on Thursday, Renaud Lavillenie had a difficult start to the competition with two failures at 5.62 m before skipping over to keep a final successful attempt at 5.72 m.
He then passed 5.82m on the first attempt and then 5.92m on the 2nd attempt to take 3rd place in the competition and do as well as in Chorzow (Poland) on June 20.
"I am working to find the rhythm on my momentum race to fight at the highest level. I know I have some work left before the Olympics. Pole vault is never easy, I prefer to have certain difficulties. now to be the best you can be in Tokyo, ”he said.
"To beat Mondo (Duplantis) you have to hope that he makes one or two mistakes and be on top of the best yourself. Beating him without jumping 6m will be almost impossible, but I'm working on it. You never know, c 'that is sport, ”he continued.
Lavillenie was beaten, as in Oslo on Thursday, by the American Sam Kendricks (5.92 m) and by the Swede Armand Duplantis, for his 4th competition at more than 6 m from the summer.
Less than a month before the Tokyo Olympics (July 23 - August 8), Duplantis (21) confirmed his status as a huge favorite by easily passing 5.82, 5.92 and then 6.02 m each time on the first try.
He then tackled 6.19m to improve his own world record (6.18m achieved in 2020), without success.
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