They have too long a track record to list them exhaustively here, but suffice it to point out that one was a world record holder and Olympic champion in 2012, while the other claimed gold at the Rio Games. in 2016, at the 2017 Worlds and won the Diamond League four times to understand that Renaud Lavillenie and the Greek Ekaterini Stefanidi are among the best in the history of their discipline.
Both agreed to inaugurate the new event set up by Lille Métropole Athlétisme. ” Since the end of the meeting, there had been no major athletic events in the Lille metropolis. Our proposal to take place among the Perche Élite Tour therefore received a very favorable reception from the MEL., confides President Alain Lignier. And the TLM volleyball club has agreed to join the project and will provide us with all logistical support for setting up the venue, managing the ticket office, etc. »
At a time when events are scarce, the athletes asked have shown a real interest in coming to the North and the range of the first edition should therefore be very high flight. At men’s, besides Renaud Lavillenie, his little brother Valentin and the Collet siblings should be part of the men’s meeting with several foreigners including Americans who have already crossed more than 5.80 m. In women, the American Katie Nageotte, one of the six highest perched women in history with 4.92 m is expected to battle with Ekaterini Stefanidi but also with the English Holly Bradshaw, 4th in the last worlds and European bronze medalist in 2018.
Other names will be added in the coming weeks to these A competitions, scheduled for Sunday 31 January afternoon (times to be defined according to the TV broadcast). If the health situation allows it, initiations for school children are scheduled on Friday, then regional tests and B competitions on Saturday.
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