Lavillenie takes Bubka's baton and launches meet

The baton -- or should that be pole vault -- has duly been passed between Ukrainian legend Sergey Bubka and his successor as world record holder, Renaud Lavillenie of France.

Lavillenie cleared 6.16 metres in Donetsk in February last year to break by one centimetre Bubka's 21-year-old world record.

And now the Frenchman, with the 10-time world champion Bubka by his side in Beijing ahead of the world championships which start Saturday, is to launch a competition featuring just the pole vault in his home town of Clermont Ferrand.

It will supercede the "Pole Vault Stars" indoor meet run by Bubka in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk over the last 25 years.

"I will be the meet director but I will also compete," said Lavillenie, who is also the reigning Olympic champion, Bubka having triumphed back in Seoul in 1988.

Bubka, he added, would be head of the organising committee for the meet scheduled for February 20-21, 2016, which will involve the world's best 24 vaulters, 12 men and 12 women.

The elite contest, dubbed the "All Star Perche" (perche translates as pole vault), will be the culmination of a four-day event involving workshops for juniors, coaches' seminars and appearances by retired legends of the discipline.

"My goal is to have the best male and female vaulters, to make it feel like a world championships of the best Diamond League meet," Lavillenie said.

"I want to have the best of the best."

Interestingly, Bubka holds the record at the venue, the 5,000-capacity Maison des Sports, having cleared 6.00 metres in 1994.

The Ukrainian, standing against Briton Sebastian Coe in Wednesday's IAAF presidency race, said Lavillenie's initiative was exactly what he would promote should he succeed outgoing president Lamine Diack.

"I hope this meet will become part of the future indoor and outdoor series of show competitions featuring elite athletes," he said.

"I have pledged to bring athletics closer to our spectators' everyday life in streets and squares, as well as well-equipped indoor arenas.

"New competition formats and the participation of star athletes like Renaud will help athletics engage with young people and promote sport and healthy lifestyle."

Bubka's own initiative had run the Donetsk indoor meet since 1991 until Lavillenie's world record feat in 2014 before the arena fell into disrepair after being damaged in the conflict between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian rebels in the separatist east of the war-scarred state.

"It's like I passed the baton to Renaud," Bubka said.
Source: AFP