The doubt was real and the start of qualifying had done nothing to dispel it. But you should never prematurely bury a champion like Renaud Lavillenie. Gold medalist in London in 2012 and silver medalist in 2016, he will compete well for a third podium at the Olympics.
Saturday July 31 at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, the former world record holder struggled like hell to snatch his qualification for a third Olympic final, scheduled for Tuesday August 3.
The French pole vaulter passed very close to the precipice: twice, he passed bars at 5.50 m and 5.65 m on his 3rd attempt. Then, he took off to cross a bar at 5.75 m on his first attempt. Enough to place him among the top twelve this morning.
“I haven’t had such a tough competition for a long time. I was in such a stranger… It was both complicated and at the same time I had nothing to lose, he confided afterwards. I went through a lot of feelings. I was scared and I could already see myself on the plane to return to France. “
Aftermath of his rehabilitation
In the event of failure, one of the leaders of the tricolor athletics would have had extenuating circumstances. Reduced by a sprained ankle suffered on July 11 during the warm-up of the competition in Sotteville-lès-Rouen (Seine-Maritime), the pole vaulter is engaged in a race against time for an express recovery.
Before his first jump on Saturday, the most experienced athlete on the circuit took his time. For long minutes, he tried to ward off bad luck, as if, by this extended preparation time, he could go back and no longer feel that damn ankle.
Lacking speed and impetus, Lavillenie was no longer jumping during these first jumps. And it was all the more annoying as he had so far achieved his best season since his past years of domination.
Two days before the deadline, he had suffered the repercussions of his rehabilitation: “I had inflammation and spent two days without being able to run. When you know that Saturday morning, you have to be at the block without knowing if you are going to be able to flex your ankle, it’s very complicated psychologically. We had to fight. “
Gradually, he has been able to tame his embarrassment and find his bearings on the saltire, his favorite garden for more than ten years that he has been at the highest level.
If he will still have to draw other resources to perform well in the final, he avoids a second disillusionment in qualifying after the one he experienced at the Doha Worlds in 2019.
“I have a lot to gain in the final”
Very transparent about his state of health, he did not hide anything at a press conference on Wednesday: “For my ankle, I have ups and downs, it’s complicated overall. I still feel that my ankle is sensitive, I continue to take care of it, I do not despair. I am strapped to limit flexion. I am prepared to jump no matter what. “
By his tour de force, he offered himself two more days of recovery as he hoped in the middle of the week. And now he has nothing more to lose. “I am released. I will do my best to make this peg as competitive as possible and try to join the battle, did he declare. I have a lot to gain in the final, starting with a third Olympic medal. ”
This season, the 30-year-old Lavillenie has shown that he can still shake up his cadets. On February 27, he spent indoors at his home in Aubières, in the suburbs of Clermont-Ferrand, an impressive bar at 6.06 m. A height that he had not known since 2014. On June 20, in Chorzow (Poland), he also crossed a very respectable bar at 5.92 m. His best outdoor performance since 2018.
Without placing himself as a favorite for the gold medal, Lavillenie hopes to push to his limits the new idol of the discipline, the Swedish Armand Duplantis (world champion and world record holder at 6.18 m), by crossing the bar why not of the six meters in the final.
In three days, he will be able to count on weight support. His brother Valentin, also a pole vaulter and eliminated, him, during the qualifications. The cadet was ready to defy the instructions to attend the grand finale: “I never miss the final in my life. I will have to force myself out. “ Valentin Lavillenie believes in his elder brother: “It’s Renaud. That’s all. It’s Renaud, it’s Renaud… I was there once at the Games (in London in 2012) and he won. “