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| French sprint sensation Christophe Lemaitre. |
France’s 2010 European Athlete of the Year Christophe Lemaître has confirmed that he plans five indoor outings during the indoor season.
The 2010 European Athletics Championships 100m, 200m and 4x100m gold medallist is currently training in Florida but, after his return at the end of the month, the 20 year-old sprinter will race at the Stuttgart, Lievin and Karlsruhe IAAF Indoor Permit Meetings on February 5, 8 and 13 respectively.
He will also compete at the French national championships in Aubière on February 19-20 and then again on home soil two weeks later at the 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Paris.
The 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships will be held in the French capital at the Palais Omnisport Paris-Bercy between March 4-6.
Apart from a gold medal, Lemaitre’s main target for the winter is to reduce his 60m best of 6.55, which he clocked last year when he was the second fastest European indoors, behind Great Britain’s Dwain Chambers.
Pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie, another of France’s six individual winners at the European Athletics Championships, plans an even more extensive programme.
He has already cleared a 2011 world-leading mark of 5.92m in Aubière last Saturday and he will have two back-to-back meetings in Germany next week, competing in Cottbus and Chemnitz next Wednesday and Thursday.
Like his friend and compatriot Lemaître, Lavillenie will compete in Stuttgart and Lievin before heading to Ukraine for the European Athletics Indoor Permit Meeting in Donetsk on February 12, the Samsung Pole Vault Stars event.
After that, Lavillenie will also compete at the French national championships in Aubière and then the 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships.
Lavillenie, who holds the French record outdoors at 6.01m, has in his sights Jean Galfione’s long-standing indoor record of 6.00m, which has been on the books since 1999.