Renaud Lavillenie on his way to winning the pole vault at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Eugene (© Kirby Lee)
Renaud Lavillenie, the pole vault world record-holder and Olympic and European champion, will return to the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene on 30 May, organisers of the 2015 IAAF Diamond League meeting announced on Monday (16).
Lavillenie is the only five-time Diamond Race winner in any event, of either gender.
He has set meeting records at 11 of the 14 IAAF Diamond League meetings and won in Eugene at the 2013 and 2014 editions of the meeting.
In the field against Lavillenie in Eugene will be Konstantinos Filippidis of Greece, who won the 2014 world indoor title when Lavillenie was sidelined with an injury.
Germany’s Raphael Holzdeppe, who beat Lavillenie to gold at the 2013 IAAF World Championships, will also be in Eugene.
Sam Kendricks is the newly crowned US indoor champion and is familiar with Hayward Field. He has twice won in Eugene, taking the NCAA crowns for his alma mater Mississippi in 2013 and 2014.
There are also the two medallists behind Lavillenie from the European Indoor Championships earlier this month, when the Frenchman won with a world-leading 6.04m.
Piotr Lisek, 22, took the bronze medal in Prague and cleared a Polish national record of 5.90m this winter.
Russia’s Aleksandr Gripich, 28, cleared a personal best of 5.85m to take the silver medal in the Czech capital.
Also on his way to Eugene will be Brazil's Augusto Dutra, 24, who set two South American records in 2013.
Organisers for the IAAF
2015 IAAF Diamond League calendar
Doha, QAT – 15 May
Shanghai, CHN – 17 May
Eugene, USA – 30 May
Rome, ITA – 4 June
Birmingham, GBR – 7 June
Oslo, NOR – 11 June
New York, USA – 13 June
Paris, FRA – 4 July
Lausanne, SUI – 9 July
Monaco, MON – 17 July
London, GBR – 24-25 July
Stockholm, SWE – 30 July
Zurich, SUI – 3 September
Brussels, BEL – 11 September
