Renaud Lavillenie: 'Helsinki 2012 will almost be like a World Championships'

Newly crowned world indoor champion Renaud Lavillenie is determined to defend his European crown in Helsinki this summer.

The men's pole vault competition was a thriller two years ago at the 2010 European Athletics Championships in Barcelona and the man who emerged triumphant, France's Renaud Lavillenie, expects the knowledgeable Helsinki crowd to be similarly entertained at this year's event.

'There are many good vaulters from Europe, Helsinki will almost be like a World Championships,' said Lavillenie, speaking to European Athletics after he had won his first global crown at the World Indoor Championships in Istanbul on Saturday.

'I am sure no one among the top European guys will want to miss out on being in Helsinki. This for two reasons: firstly, and most importantly, it's a continental championship. How else can you say that you are the best in Europe?

'Secondly, it will be a great rehearsal for what we might have to do at the Olympics a few weeks later.

'I am hoping for good weather but I'm not automatically expecting that it will be easy to jump in Helsinki and maybe it will be the same weather and conditions that we face in London a few weeks later. Maybe there will be wind, maybe there will be rain,' added Lavillenie.

The 2012 European Athletics Championships will be held in the Finnish capital from 27 June to 1 July.

'I'm now finally a world champion but I'm still a European champion as well and I am determined to defend my title. The European title is very important to me, it was my first major title when I won in Barcelona two years ago,' said Lavillenie.

Lavillenie was not at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki, when the men's pole vault was memorably conducted in a downpour but the French daredevil is a man for all seasons and nothing will stop him making the trip to Finland's capital.

'I have heard many stories about the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki, which was won by the Dutch vaulter Rens Blom, and that's another reason why I want to go there. I am always excited by a challenge,' added the man who once leapt over the cross bar of a set of rugby uprights without the benefit of a landing bed.

Among the men Lavillenie could face again in Helsinki is Germany's Istanbul silver medallist Björn Otto.

'I want to be fighting for medals again at the Europeans. I think it will be a great competition as you'll see many of the same guys that were in action in Istanbul,' commented Otto.

Otto's compatriot Malte Mohr, who finished just out of the medals in fourth place in Istanbul but who is the 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships bronze medallist, has also confirmed that he has the dates of the 2012 European Athletics Championships marked heavily in his diary.