Report21 Sep 2016

Germany takes team victory at Fly Europe Paris

Tobias Scherbarth in the pole vault at Fly Europe Paris (© AFP / Getty Images)

Following their victory at the first event in the series in Berlin earlier this month, Germany took the overall title at the Fly Europe street athletics competition at the Parc André Citroën in Paris on Wednesday (21).

The concept is an innovative one. Five teams – Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Great Britain – field an athlete in three events: the men’s pole vault, the women’s long jump and the men’s 40m sprint.

There are four rounds in each of the jumping events. The pole vaulters can choose any height to attempt, provided they don’t move down in heights after each round. The best athlete in each of the rounds will get five points, the next best gets four, all the way down to one point for the lowest height of the round. A foul, though, will result in zero points.

Tobias Scherbarth bagged valuable points for Germany. Aside from a failure in the second round, the German champion was the top performer in the other three rounds, clearing 5.27m, 5.46m, and 5.51m. France’s Stanley Joseph was the second-best vaulter overall, securing 13 points with clearances at 5.33m, 5.37m and 5.42m.

Like in the pole vault, the points in the long jump are awarded to the best in each round.

Although Germany’s Sosthene Moguenara produced the best leap of the afternoon with 6.42m, Spain’s Juliet Itoya racked up the most points due to a more consistent series of leaps. The 30-year-old was the best jumper of the two last rounds and amassed 16 points to finish ahead of Moguenara and 2014 world indoor champion Eloyse Lesueur.

For the men’s 40m, the sprinters ran alone down a track as their top speed was recorded, with the best in each of the three rounds being awarded points in the same way as the other two events.

In a close contest, Lukas Jakubczyk of Germany proved to be the best overall, bagging just one point more than France’s Mickael-Meba Zeze. The fastest speed, though, was recorded by Italy’s Simone Pettenati at 40.78km/h.

Germany eventually won with a total of 39.5 points, just three ahead of hosts France. Although he didn’t take part in the team competition, France’s world record-holder Renaud Lavillenie put on a show with a bit of a pole vault exhibition at the conclusion of the contest.

Following the events in Berlin and Paris, the Fly Europe series will continue next year with competitions being held in the capital cities of the three other participating nations.

Jon Mulkeen for the IAAF