Finest pole vault competitions to be staged in downtown Lausanne
Athletissima 2020 in Lausanne, Switzerland will be showcasing traditional athletics mixed with originality and innovation for its next edition, Wednesday 2 September. The competitions will allow athletes to register official performances and focus exclusively on pole vault, currently one of the hottest events in track and field.
Two competitions will take place simultaneously, on Place de l'Europe, in the heart of the city, with both a female and a male event. The athletes are going to jump alternately, a man followed by a woman, on two separate and parallel tracks.
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2019 edition of the City Event at the esplanade du Flon, Lausanne
ATHLETISSIMA have already managed to attract the wold's bests for the two events:
The world record holder, the Swedish prodigy Armand "Mondo" Duplantis (6m18 this winter indoors), the previous world record holder Renaud Lavillenie from France, the American Sam Kendricks, Piotr Lisek and Pawel Wojciechowski from Poland and Cole Wash (USA). The women's field is very promising, too, with the presence of indoor world champion Sandi Morris from the United States, the Greek Ekaterini Stefanidi (Olympic and world champion), the Russian Anzhelika Sidorova(ANA status depending), the Swede Angelica Bengtsson, and Alysha Newman from Canada. Swiss stars Angelica Moser and Nicole Büchler will give their best to challenge them.
The list will be finalised over the coming weeks to reach up to sixteen or eighteen athletes.
The overall budget will amount to around 300’000 Swiss francs (CHF), including 54’000 Swiss francs (CHF) in prize money (equally distributed), plus appearance fees and infrastructure costs.
In the current state of the measures taken by the Swiss authorities in the context of Covid-19, the event's preparation is designed for 1’000 spectators, but this capacity could be increased to 5’000 if the federal measures were to be alleviated by then. But either way, Athletissima will respect the Swiss government’s security regulations on the day of the competition.
These are the first official outdoor pole vault competitions at the highest level to be officially confirmed worldwide till now.
"The athletes are eager to come and compete, they keep knocking at our door. For the moment, we haven't even had to talk about money," says meeting boss Jacky Delapierre.
The event will take place from 5.30 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. and will be broadcast live by the three national TV channels. In order for the performances to be officially recognised, two specially designed tracks will be installed, which will make it possible to fully compensate for the slightly negative slope of the venue. All the equipment will be chartered from Paris and by a local Swiss company.
"All of our usual sponsors, with the exception of one, are ready to support us despite the exceptional situation we're in. This is a strong positive signal for us", Jacky Delapierre stressed, looking ahead at 2 September but also, already, for the 2021 edition which will hopefully mark a return to normality.
