French pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie, injured in his right calf, withdrew from the European Indoor Athletics Championships in Torun (Poland), the French Federation (FFA) announced on Friday.
The 2012 Olympic champion, whose duel with world record holder Armand Duplantis (6.18 m) was to be one of the highlights of this Euro, was to enter the competition on Saturday during the qualifications for the pole vault competition.
“During my last training session this morning, I felt a sharp pain in my right calf on a classic exercise, explained the French (34 years old) quoted in the press release published by the FFA.
In the process, I spent time with the physiotherapist and I gave myself the time of the day to see the evolution.
But tonight, the evolution is not significant enough and I do not want to aggravate the injury to risk compromising the (Tokyo) Olympics this summer. "
“It’s a very difficult decision for me because I’m a competitor but with the beautiful winter I’ve had, I don’t want to lose everything for the summer season,” he added.
This package is a huge blow for the France team which thus loses one of its great chances for a medal, or even a title.
Lavillenie had indeed returned to his best level since the start of the year by doing two jumps over 6 m (6.02 m on January 31 in Tourcoing, 6.06 m on February 27 in Aubière).
He had not exceeded this symbolic bar since March 2016.
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