Renaud Lavillenie, winner of the pole vault at the Indoor Meeting Karlsruhe (© Jean-Pierre Durand)
Renaud Lavillenie is the first star name confirmed for the 34th Indoor Meeting Karlsruhe on 3 February, the opening stop in the six-meeting 2018 IAAF World Indoor Tour.
"The Indoor Meeting Karlsruhe will be the second meeting for me and it is immensely important for me," said Lavillenie, the world record-holder in the pole vault at 6.16m. "On the one hand, it's an excellent meeting with great fans, but I also want to perform well in the run-up to the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham."
The Frenchman resumed training six weeks ago and confirmed that he's recovering well from the injuries that slowed him for much of the past season. An assault on his own 5.91m Karlsruhe meeting record could be a part of his agenda.
"I know that this is enormously important for the audience," he said. "I will be in very good condition, I definitely want to attack the hall record."
How high might he go?
"I want to increase it by between one and ten centimetres," he said, which would have him hovering over six metres for the first time since March 2016 when he took his second world indoor crown.
Organisers for the IAAF
2018 IAAF World Indoor Tour
3 Feb – Karlsruhe
6 Feb – Düsseldorf
8 Feb – Madrid
10 Feb – Boston
15 Feb – Torun
25 Feb – Glasgow
