Renaud Lavillenie at the 2016 IAAF Diamond League meeting in Eugene (© Kirby Lee)
World record-holder and world indoor champion Renaud Lavillenie will face world champion Sam Kendricks in the Prefontaine Classic pole vault at the ‘Friday Night at Pre’ programme for the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Eugene on 25-26 May.
Lavillenie added a record third world indoor pole vault title to his impressive collection earlier this month in the UK. The world record-holder battled multiple injuries last year and relinquished a crown he owned since the IAAF Diamond League was created in 2010, having won a record seven consecutive IAAF Diamond League titles between 2010 and 2016.
The 31-year-old vaulted a North American all-comers’ record of 6.05m at the 2015 Pre Classic to set an outdoor PB.
Kendricks was undefeated last year, winning the world title and the IAAF Diamond League trophy. He earned the Olympic bronze medal in Rio in 2016 and recently picked up his second successive world indoor silver medal behind Lavillenie.
Thiago Braz won in Rio in 2016, becoming the first Brazilian man to win an Olympic gold medal in athletics since 1984.
Mondo Duplantis is 18 years old and still in high school. As a 17-year-old last year, he set a world U20 record of 5.90m and went on to become the youngest man to reach a World Championships pole vault final.
Poland’s Piotr Lisek earned the world silver medal last year after taking bronze in 2015. Like Lavillenie and Kendricks, he recently replicated his podium finish from 2016 by taking bronze at the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham.
Pawel Wojiechowski, also from Poland, won the 2011 world title and picked up bronze in 2015.
Germany’s Raphael Holzdeppe won the 2013 world title. He also earned Olympic bronze in 2012 and world silver in 2015.
Organisers for the IAAF
2018 IAAF Diamond League calendar
4 May – Doha, QAT
12 May – Shanghai, CHN
26 May – Eugene, USA
31 May – Rome, ITA
7 Jun – Oslo, NOR
10 Jun – Stockholm, SWE
30 Jun – Paris, FRA
5 Jul – Lausanne, SUI
13 Jul – Rabat, MAR
20 Jul – Monaco, MON
21-22 Jul – London, GBR
18 Aug – Birmingham, GBR
30 Aug – Zurich, SUI
31 Aug – Brussels, BEL
