Renaud Lavillenie is never as strong as in his garden, and the crack Mondo Duplantis almost learned it at his expense. The two pole vaulters challenged each other in a distance contest, one was in France, the other in the United States. The goal ? Surveyed the most jumps at 5m in half an hour. The match ended with a solid 36 everywhere. The double American world champion Sam Kendricks, who also participated, was ranked 3rd in this "Ultimate Garden Clash". With ten fewer jumps.
In a certain confusion, the production proposed a 3-minute tie-break, which Lavillenie, the face marked by fatigue, refused while Duplantis, visibly less experienced, set out again for an additional jump. "Succeeding 36 jumps at 5 m in 30 minutes, I challenge anyone on this planet to do the same, it's huge," said Kendricks, still breathless. At the height of the challenge, the live brought together a total of more than 20,000 simultaneous spectators but in total, the video of the competition had hundreds of thousands of views Sunday evening on its various media.
Everyone started on a personal long necklace: Lavillenie in his garden in Pérignat-lès-Sarliève (central France) with his daughter Iris on the swing in the background, Kendricks on a modern long necklace on his parents' farm in Louisiana (United States) and Armand Duplantis on the old long necklace where he started, at the age of three, in his parents' garden, in Mississippi (United States).
"None of us wanted to lose"
Aged 20, the young prodigy jumped quickly, with no apparent effort. Lavillenie, 33, was meticulous, stopping between each jump to drink, mop the forehead and repoudre hands, while Kendricks, whose runway was much longer, adopted a rhythm more careful, taking the time to sit down to catch his breath.
"Paradoxically, I found most of the preparation for competition," testified Lavillenie, who had expressed in recent weeks his difficulty training while the Covid-19 epidemic caused the postponement of major meetings you this year, Olympic Games in mind.
"None of us wanted to lose ... It was very intense," he added during a short press conference by videoconference after the challenge. "My goal was to make one jump per minute, but it took a little more to get the win. It is a mixed effort between technique and endurance. I wouldn't do this every weekend but it was cool. "
Armand Duplantis also explained that he enthusiastically accepted the initiative of his French elder: "I live from the competition, we were all in need". However, he was not in favor of the idea of introducing this competition format in a stadium: "It was nice, but I want to jump high, higher".
Next competition on June 11
The president of the International Athletics Federation, Sebastian Coe, followed the competition on the internet and congratulated the three athletes for "this great initiative, really nice and innovative". He also thanked their relatives for helping, by keeping the counters or managing the cameras, "to bring back live athletics during confinement".
"I hope we can offer a few other competitions like this for all athletic fans around the world," he added. These new challenges could involve other pole vaulters, men or women, and other disciplines.
At the same time, Lavillenie and Duplantis must “meet” on June 11 for another original distance competition, organized in place of the Oslo meeting. The Swede will jump into the legendary Bislett stadium, without any audience, against the local Sondre Guttmorsen, while the French must compete once again from home.
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- Renaud Lavillenie
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- Pole vault
- Confinement
- Coronavirus