Renaud Lavillenie is one of the event organisers of the All Star Perche in Clermont-Ferrand, a European Athletics Indoor Permit Meeting, on Sunday (25) but the world record-holder has assembled a glittering field to take him on in his home city ahead of the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Birmingham where he will be looking to keep hold of his title.
Lavillenie is back in form after an injury-plagued 2017 season with a 5.90m clearance in Rouen a fortnight ago but that mark was eclipsed as the world lead by European indoor champion and world silver medallist Piotr Lisek from Poland who cleared 5.91m in Torun.
Lisek will be in action in Clermont-Ferrand along with the last four world outdoor champions: Sam Kendricks from the United States (2017), Shawn Barber from Canada (2015), Raphael Holzdeppe from Germany (2013) and Pawel Wojciechowski from Poland (2011). Barber won at this meeting last year with a 5.83m clearance.
Et voici les premiers perchistes qui ont exploités la Maison des Sports de Clermont-ferrand en mode @AllStarPerche , les jeunes scolaires sélectionnés par @unss !
— Renaud LAVILLENIE® (@airlavillenie) February 21, 2018
Une belle première journée.
Merci à l’UNSS et aux jeunes présents pour cette implication qui ne fait que commencer. pic.twitter.com/MsCH6kioJx
Former world indoor champion Konstadinos Filippidis from Greece, who is equal fifth on the world lists with a 5.85m clearance, is also in the field along with Sweden’s wunderkind Armand Duplantis, the world U20 record-holder at 5.90m.
Recently crowned US champion and world leader Katie Nageotte will also be in action. She will face former European indoor and outdoor champion Anzhelika Sidorova who is only four centimetres behind Nageotte on the world lists with a 4.87m clearance to win the Russian title.
Home hopes will lie with joint French record-holder Ninon Guillon-Romarin.
Lavillenie
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) February 23, 2018
Kendricks
Barber
Holzdeppe
Wojciechowski
Lisek
Filippidis
Duplantis
The men's line-up for the All-Star Perche is https://t.co/8B8ECQqUwW pic.twitter.com/nBO3W0WwEW