Olympic bronze medallist Emmanouil Karalis heads the start lists for the Perche Elite Tour in Rouen, France on Friday (24). The World Athletics Indoor Tour Silver Tour meeting will be streamed live on the European Athletics website.
Six metre vaulters collide
Karalis had a successful year in every respect in 2024, winning Olympic bronze, silver at Roma 2024, world indoor bronze and joining the exclusive six metre club with 6.00m at the Silesia Diamond League. This will be his first competition of 2025.
He faces experienced USA duo Sam Kendricks and Chris Nilsen. Kendricks is the Olympic silver medallist and twice world champion with a best of 6.06m and Nilsen won silver at the Tokyo Olympics and has cleared 6.05m.
The strongest home hope is Thibaut Collet, who improved his personal best to 5.95m last year.
High quality field
The women's field includes Slovenia’s Tina Šutej, silver medallist at the Istanbul 2023 European Athletics Indoor Championships and Italian duo of Elisa Molinarolo and Roberta Bruni, who were sixth and seventh respectively at Roma 2024.
European outdoor champion Angelica Moser from Switzerland and world indoor champion Molly Caudery, who won in Rouen last year with 4.86m, are both late withdrawals.
Chris Broadbent for European Athletics
