9th July 2012 08:44
European victories were in short supply at the Meeting Stanislas in the French city of Nancy, the eighth of this summer's European Athletics Outdoor Premium Meetings, but France's 2012 European Athletics Championships pole vault gold medallist Renaud Lavillenie continued his 2012 outdoor unbeaten streak on Sunday.
Lavillenie, who cleared a world-leading 5.97m in Helsinki eight days ago to take his second consecutive continental outdoor title, this time needed only a first time clearance at 5.73m to secure victory in very difficult conditions. He then had three failures at 5.83m.
It was Lavillenie's eighth win outdoors this summer and he has an 11-meeting unbeaten streak which stretches back to February. His only loss in his 13 outings in 2012 came early in the year indoors at Pas-de-Calais.
'The conditions were really difficult, there was a swirling wind. I've never had as much wind hit me from the side before, just look at the crazy wind readings in the 100m (see below). I'm actually very happy, 5.73m is more than adequate performance in these conditions,' reflected Lavillenie, who came in at the unusually low height of 5.33m.
'People might have wondered about the value of this competition but it was a good rehearsal (for the Olympics). My goal is to be able is to be able to be physically in control in all types weather conditions,” he added.
There were other wins in Nancy for European athletes in the men's field events with Russian long jumper Pavel Shalin going out to 7.96m and Ukraine's Roman Avramenko winning the javelin in 79.86.
However, New Zealand's reigning world and Olympic shot put champion Valerie Adams provided arguably the best performance of the meeting when she won her specialist event with 20.97m and all six of her throws went over 20 metres.
American hurdlers were in form and benefited from a strong-but-legal breeze on their backs with Joel Brown winning the men's 1110m hurdles in 13.23 ahead of Cuba's Orlando Ortega, who was second in 13.25. France's Dimitri Bascou was third in 13.34 and Great Britain's 2010 European Athletics Championships gold medallist Andy Turner fourth in 13.45 while the current number one Frenchman in the event, Helsinki silver medallist Garfield Darien, was disqualified.
United States' Ginnie Crawford won the women's 100m hurdles in 12.88.
The wind picked up for the 100m sprints with the men's race being won by the American sprinter Mike Rodgers won in 9.96, with a 2.4 metres-per-second following breeze while Laverne Jones-Ferrette of US Virging Islands was timed at 10.91 in the women's 100m with a 4.5 mps wind, a race in which the 2012 European Athletics Championships gold medallist Ivet Lalova finished third in 11.01.
The meeting in Nancy was the eighth of this summer's 12 European Athletics Outdoor Premium Meetings. The next one will also take place in France, in Sotteville lès Rouen on Tuesday.
Details of all the 2012 European Athletics Outdoor Premium Meetings can be found here.
Click here for complete results.