Already in great shape at the start of the season, the two pole vaulter Armand Duplantis and Renaud Lavillenie meet for the first time this year on Saturday in Rouen where their clash promises a great show, with the double world champion Sam Kendricks in the role referee.
Six months before the Tokyo Olympics, Duplantis and Lavillenie are seriously starting to mark their territory.
For the Swedish prodigy (21), who cleared 6.01m on Sunday in Düsseldorf, this is only a confirmation after a 2020 exercise illuminated by two world records set indoors (6.17 then 6.18m ) and a historic outdoor performance (6.15m).
The European champion (2018), for whom the symbolic 6-meter bar has now become a formality, clearly has a big margin over his rivals and could still go very high at the Kindarena in Rouen.
Lavillenie's second youth
The novelty of winter lies above all in the awakening of the indestructible Renaud Lavillenie.
At 34 years old, the 2012 Olympic champion is experiencing a rebirth and goes on outings at altitudes he was no longer used to frequenting.
After a catastrophic 2019 (elimination in qualifying for the Doha Worlds, a first in a major championship) and a last season ignored by the Covid-19, the French seems to be experiencing a second youth.
Lavillenie, who had not exceeded 6m since March 2016, thus marked the spirits with a jump to 6.02m, Sunday in Tourcoing.
Proof that this extraordinary competitor should not be buried too quickly and that the prospect of the Olympics gave him new life.
"It's clearly a return to my best level," the former world record holder (6.16m) told AFP after his fine performance on Sunday.
Since the winter of 2017 I have had galleys, small injuries that bothered me during my preparations.
Today it's been six months that I have no physical problems, that I can train every day, so the work pays.
It's nice to just be able to express yourself to your full potential. ”
Lavillenie will therefore have to be reckoned with more than ever in 2021 and while waiting for the Tokyo Games, the Frenchman has replaced himself as a candidate for a medal at the European Indoor Championships, from March 5 to 7 in Torun (Poland).
"I am realistic about my potential and that of my opponents, but my interest is to prepare for Euro indoor, that's what we will remember at the end of the season"
Renaud Lavillenie
"I am realistic about my potential and that of my opponents, but my interest is to prepare for Euro indoor, which is what we will remember at the end of the season," he explained.
I gave myself the chance to dream of a fifth European indoor title.
Mondo (Duplantis, editor's note) has the advantage (...) but in a competition things can happen ... And if you are able to do 6 meters that puts pressure.
The goal is the podium in Torun. ”
In Rouen, Duplantis and Lavillenie will however have to keep Sam Kendricks in mind as always.
The American with the two world titles (2017, 2019) has certainly started the season smoothly (5.81 m in Düsseldorf on Sunday) but he could very well come and join the fight.
These three have not finished crossing paths anyway: after Rouen, they will still be opposed three days later to Liévin (February 9) before the big meeting of the All Star Perche in Clermont-Ferrand (February 27 ), organized as every year on his land by Renaud Lavillenie.
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