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| Pole vault star Renaud Lavillenie of France. |
France's pole vault star Renaud Lavillenie, the current European champion both indoor and outdoors who also won at the World Indoor Championships in Istanbul, is hoping to defend his continental title at the European Athletics Championships in Helsinki before bidding to add become the third Frenchman to win an Olympic pole vault title.
'The best pole vaulters in the world today happen to be Europeans. And they all will be Helsinki. It will be a good opportunity to test you before the Olympics. It will show me if everything is fine with my preparations or something needs to be done. I want to be at my best in Helsinki,' Lavillenie told European Athletics YouTube channel on the sidelines of the Golden Spike meeting in Ostrava last week.
Czech Republic's Denisa Rosolová climbed to the top of the podium at the 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships after she won the 400m in Paris last year and in Helsinki this summer she will be bidding to have the right be called a double continental champion.
'I am definitely going to be in Helsinki, I am still undecided about whether I will go for the 400m flat race or the 400m hurdles. From the point of view of making it to the finals in London, I think I have a better chance in the 400m hurdles,' the 25-year-old Rosolová explained to European Athletics.
The 2012 European Athletics Championships will be held in the Finnish capital from 27 June – 1 July.
Click on the links below to watch brief interviews with Lavillenie and Rosolová on our YouTube channel.
Renaud Lavillenie
Denisa Rosolová