The race for the Olympic minimums for Renaud Lavillenie is off to a bad start. In Toulouse on Saturday, the pole vaulter failed to win the expected success by missing his three attempts at 5.50 m. At 37 years old, the 2012 Olympic champion only has one possibility of qualifying, during the French Championships in Angers next Sunday. We will have to do much better and exceed 5.82 m, otherwise we will miss the Paris Games.
On the Place du Capitole and in rainy weather, the Frenchman did not manage to sublimate himself. More worrying, Lavillenie, still hampered by his hamstring injury, is regressing compared to his previous marks. On Wednesday, in Montbonnot-Saint-Martin (Isère), he was very close to crossing the bar at 5.60 m during his third attempt. This time around, he fell well short of the mark, seeing the prospect of competing in a fourth Olympics seriously slip away for the former world record holder.
