This summer Frenchman Renuad Lavillenie failed to win the only global title he doesn ‘t hold in Moscow and could have easily wound down his season ready to prepare for 2014.
No chance.
Rather than cooling down his season Lavillenie has decided to bow out with a new challenge – and a potential world record – after swapping one event for ten at the IAAF Combined Events Challenge meeting in Talence.
“After the World Championships, I was upset. I needed a change of scenery, to do something else, ” he said speaking on charentelibre.fr.
Later today Lavillenie will grace the pole vault runway with the current decathlon world record of 5.76m by German Tim Lobinger set in Leverkusen in 1999 etched in his thoughts.
He said: “I ‘m really a jack of all trades. Running and jumping…I do throughout the year during my workouts. I jumped at the chance (of the decathlon). “
Candanian Damian Warner currently leads the competition after 7 events following Ashton Eaton ‘s withdrawal during the high jump.
Levillenie is in 16th place with 4711 points scoring 11,38 (-0.9 m/s) in the 100m, 7.18m (+0.6 m/s) in the long jump, 9.30m in the shot, 1.87m in the high jump, 53.84 in the 400m, 15.13 (-0.2 m/s) in the 110mh and 30.02m in the discus.
In event 8 at least all the other competitiors will be vying for 2nd place as the Frenchman has the top seven heights set this year with his superb 6.02m from the London Diamond League leading the world rankings.
Full results can be found here: https://vsprt.com/17YnDNR
