Paris Diaries: Renaud Lavillenie and Sam Kendricks talk pole vault

The press conference with Renaud Lavillenie and Sam Kendricks was my favorite.

Renaud Lavillenie is the world record holder and world champion at the pole vault. Sam is the Olympic silver medalist and World indoor silver medalist as well. Last weekend, Sam Kendricks cleared 6 meters for the first time.

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What is so great about these two? They compete and they are friends. Renaud was totally relaxed and so was Sam.

Sam spoke of the clearing of six meters, as akin to a right of manhood for pole vaulters, but also a very personal experience. He then smiled, looked at Renaud and said, you have cleared six meters twelve times?

Renaud just smiled.

Renaud Lavillenie, photo by PhotoRun.net

Renaud Lavillenie has dealt with injuries for some six months. He hurt a leg so he had to rebuild his strength and be very careful. He is getting close to top fitness, but not there. Here was his amazing quote:

Â« It looks that people forgot that I was on only one leg for all the last winter. I needed to rebuild myself. It’s not an easy task. Knowing that, my season in pretty decent so far. At first, I was not able to jump on a complete run up, I only could do it on 16 strikes. For the last 3 weeks, I could have done it, but the conditions on competition didn’t allow me to. Despite this problem, I have been able to jump 5 times at 5.80 m or higher. That’s correct but not enough to win a big event. But things will change, we are only on late june. Today, I don’t feel any pain, I’m able to fully train and jump. Â»

Sam Kendricks soars, Nike Pre 2017, photo by PhotoRun.net

Sam Kendricks is a US Army officer. He speaks like an officer (truly, a compliment) and enjoys the world around him. Here is what Sam Kendricks had to say:

Â« I’m very happy to be in Paris. Happy to be back in Paris, where things started for me. I remember being there in 2015, for the meeting, my first big international meeting. I was proud to be part of it. Now, things are different. Jumping 6 m in Sacramento was an important goal for me. It’s was something I tried to achieve for a long time. With my coach, we worked a lot to do it. Now, it’s done. It gives me a lot of confidence. Â»

Author

Larry Eder
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
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