Last

year, the meeting drew a crowd -

F. Launay / 20 Minutes

  • The Liévin indoor athletics meeting will take place this Tuesday evening.

  • To maintain the event, very strict health measures had to be applied to athletes from all over the world.

Liévin did not want to give up.

Despite the health context, the indoor athletics meeting, considered the best in the world, will take place on Tuesday evening behind closed doors in exceptional sanitary conditions.

“We couldn't afford to give up.

What prevailed was credibility after 27 editions but also a super strict respect for incredible sanitary conditions.

It is a mini Olympic village which has been closed to the covered stadium for five days, ”says Philippe Lamblin, president of the Hauts-de-France athletics league.

Concretely, it is possible to enter and exit the Arena without showing a white footing.

A negative PCR test is essential to enter the stadium where athletes train, sleep and eat.

The same goes for the TV crews responsible for broadcasting the event.

Everything is thought out so that the athletes do not cross paths to avoid as much contact as possible.

A very high level set

A real health bubble that not everyone could join.

Coming from all over the world such as Ethiopia, Kenya or the United States, the athletes had to cross increasingly sealed borders.

If some have been turned away at airports, the scene remains crazy.

Five men above 6 meters in the pole vault competition (including Lavillenie and the world record holder Duplantis), a world champion and a European record holder over 1,500 meters, the world top has made an appointment on the Liévin fast track where eight world records have already been broken in the past.

The Liévin meeting will take place in 2021 but without an audience - F. Launay / 20 Minutes

The only notable absentees are the 5,000 spectators who usually fill the stands of the indoor stadium.

A real heartbreak for the organizers who had no other choice but to do without an audience.

The essential is saved: the event, financed by private partners and local communities, will take place.

An achievement in these times of pandemic.

"We have achieved an incredible tour de force"

“Thanks to all the volunteer organizers, we achieved an incredible feat.

But we must remain humble because nothing is acquired until Tuesday evening.

Whatever happens, it proves that we can raise our heads in this complicated period, ”concludes Lamblin.

Since its creation in 1987, the meeting has been canceled six times due to structural problems.

But the global virus will not have managed to get in the way of the event.

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