Renaud Lavillenie crossed the 6m mark for the first time in nearly 5 years, on January 31, 2021 in Tourcoing.
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FRANCOIS GREUEZ / SIPA
Sunday, in Tourcoing, Renaud Lavillenie signed the best world performance of the year by soaring to 6.02m.
The 2012 Olympic champion, undermined by injuries, had not passed the mythical 6-meter bar for nearly five years.
A few months before the Tokyo Olympics, he once again feels in full possession of his means.
Back home, Monday noon, Renaud Lavillenie gave himself a little pleasure.
Why deprive yourself of it at the same time?
With his training buddy Stanley Joseph, he landed in front of the replay of the Tourcoing meeting, never getting tired of seeing himself succeed in this jump at 6.02m.
Less than 24 hours later, the emotion is still there.
It had been almost five years since he had reached such heights.
Renaud Lavillenie surrounded by his training partners from Clermont after having crossed 6.02m.
- FRANCOIS GREUEZ / SIPA
“It's incredible to come back and go 6 meters again, after all the hardships he's been through,” blows his friend on the phone.
Stanley Joseph is part of the merry band of Clermont who pounced on the 2012 Olympic champion once the feat accomplished.
After all these years of sharing his daily life, he is almost as happy as he is.
He has seen him suffer from a thousand ailments, more or less large (knee, thigh, tibia ...), which have been undermining his training sessions and his performances since winter 2017. But he had also seen it in recent weeks. , get back in good shape after finally getting rid of all your sores.
“We expected a little.
It had been a long time since we had seen him in such form during the sessions.
At the moment, he is not pretending!
It's great Renaud, says the 29-year-old pole vaulter.
It's the first time in a long time that he's had no glitches, he's building something he couldn't build in recent years.
There he's set like clockwork, he knows exactly what he's doing.
"
6m02 💪🏼
Nothing to add 👊🏼
Thank you @Perche_en_or
💙 air6team 🥰 @PUMA @PUMARunning @BRMChrono @Michelin 💙 pic.twitter.com/E4HrvRzlGt
- Renaud LAVILLENIE (@airlavillenie) January 31, 2021
The renewal of Lavillenie finds its source in the first confinement, last March.
Cloistered at home, the Auvergnat put aside the physical sessions which were essential in normal times but which required him to pull on the rope, containing fun exercises with his daughter's toys and a few jumps in his garden.
What to clear the head and regenerate.
"This period allowed me to find a physical balance", he said Sunday evening to our colleagues from the
Parisian
.
"We may be more attentive to our body"
Before that, all the same, some small everyday things had changed.
“The workload and the sessions are more adapted to the state in which Renaud finds himself,” explains his physical trainer Yann Rémondin.
For example, at one point, Philippe [d'Encausse, his trainer] stopped the sessions with hurdles.
They were helping him with his performance but they weren't doing him good for his knee.
"
Between the athlete and his staff, dialogue is more important than ever.
“We may be more attentive to our body, with more rigor on certain aspects,” continues Rémondin.
But it's always complicated to know exactly what the effects of what are.
It's something global, between the physical, moods, general well-being, etc.
After that, it's not because you're better that you jump higher either.
Performance is a complex notion.
"
Renaud Lavillenie in the arms of his trainer Philippe d'Encausse on Sunday.
- FRANCOIS GREUEZ / SIPA
What is certain is that Lavillenie is in the process of finding a second youth.
At 34, when everyone saw him buried by the new generation, and in particular the prodigy Mondo Duplantis, who stole his world record (6.17m then 6.18m at the beginning of last year), here he is. back to unexpected heights.
"I have the impression that he is relieved," confides Stanley Joseph.
99% of people thought he would never do 6 meters again.
He gave everyone a good slap.
I do not know if he had doubted whether he would ever do them again.
In any case, for a long time, he did not speak about it any more, whereas these last weeks yes.
Saturday night, I went to his room, he had only that in mind.
"
He did, and even "a little earlier than expected" in the season, on his own terms.
Enough to make you hungry for the future.
Because it will have escaped no one that this rebirth comes in an Olympic year - well, normally.
"The Olympics are soon and at the same time a bit far, a lot can happen by then, tempers Yann Rémondin.
All in good time, although it is better to do 6.02m now than not to do them.
"
Back at his “best level”, as he estimated on Sunday, Lavillenie will first meet Duplantis and the American Sam Kendricks next weekend in Rouen, for a long-awaited direct confrontation.
And then, in a few weeks, it will be the European Indoor Championships (March 5-7).
"He can still go higher," Joseph is convinced.
When we see how he goes on Sunday, without touching the bar… And it's only January.
What I see at the moment in training is the 2014 Renaud. ”The year of his world record at 6.16m on the land of Sergei Bubka.
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