The French out in force at the MEETING AREVA at the Stade de France

French athletes have always felt at home at the Stade de France and the 2010 edition of the MEETING AREVA won’t go against this long tradition. The French will be out in force in every sense of the term. Through its position in the event schedule, the Île de France meeting constitutes a key stage for them, situated midway between the French Championships (8th to 10th July in Valencia) and the European Championships (27th July to 1st August in Barcelona).

The national Technical Management team behind the FFA (French Athletics Federation) has even chosen it as the final competition to achieve the minimum standard for European competition hopes.

 

“At least two of them, Renaud Lavillenie in the pole vault and Teddy Tamgho in the triple jump, stand a very good chance of winning, explains Laurent Boquillet, Director of the MEETING AREVA. All eyes will also be upon a third athlete, Christophe Lemaitre; his performance in the 100 m against Jamaicans Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell constituting one of the evening’s prime curiosities.”

A great new addition to this year’s event will be either one lane or one place in a competition being offered to all the French champions from a week earlier in Valencia and this will be the case for all the events on the programme. However, this all depends on whether their performances in Valencia correspond with the sporting aims of the Meeting. “If there is too much of a discrepancy in terms of time or distance between a French athlete and the rest of the line-up, we won’t be able to invite them to compete, explains Laurent Boquillet – And frankly we wouldn’t be doing them a good turn to invite them in that situation.”

Finally, the Île de France meeting, the ninth of the fourteen stages of the Samsung Diamond League, will give France’s male 4×100 m runners the opportunity to test themselves against some of their main European rivals, just days before their departure for Barcelona. The race, which has been recently added to the programme, will pit one, or even two French relay teams, against teams from Belgium, Poland and the UK; the presence of an Italian team not yet confirmed.

 

 Here we have a detailed review, in order of the event programme, of the French presence at the Meeting AREVA :

18.45 hrs – Women’s long jump – Eloyse Lesueur took her fellow competitors by surprise when she took victory in the European Team Championship competition on 15th June in Bergen. Jumping 6.78 m, she set a new personal best there. The Meeting AREVA may well serve as an opportunity to repeat that performance, two years after her 4th place in the Indoor Worlds in Valencia.

18.55 hrs – Women’s discus – awaiting the results of the French Championships

19.00 hrs – Women’s shot – awaiting the results of the French Championships

19.30 hrs – Men’s pole vault – The Samsung Diamond League proved rather successful for Renaud Lavillenie. From Clermont-Ferrand, central France, the athlete won the competition in Oslo (5.80 m) and New York (5.85), each time outclassing the reigning Olympic and World champion, Australian Steven Hooker. The two men will both be battling it out at the Stade de France and their rivalry will be watched closely by the other French pole-vaulters, Romain Mesnil, Damiel Dossevi and Jérôme Clavier, each keen to join in with the struggle.

20.03 hrs – Men’s 400 m – Leslie Djhone has got used to delaying his peak of fitness till the major event of the season. Credited to date with a still fairly modest time of 45’’72, he will be looking to benefit from the ambiance of a race comprising the world’s top athletes to considerably reduce his current time, prior to taking off for Barcelona.

20.03 hrs – Women’s high jump – awaiting the results of the French Championships.

20.23 hrs – Men’s steeplechase – awaiting the results of the French Championships.

20.33 hrs –Men’s triple jump – World Indoor champion and record holder in March in Doha, with a jump of 17.90 m, Teddy Tamgho has attacked the summer season at a gallop. In New York on 12th June he landed a jump of 17.98 m, the world’s third best performance in history. On home turf in the Stade de France, he’ll be keen to score some points against two of his rivals for the European title, English jumper Phillips Idowu, the reigning world champion, and the Swedish athlete Christian Olsson, Olympic champion in 2004.

20.38 hrs – Men’s 800 m / 20.38 hrs – Men’s javelin /  20.48 hrs – Women’s  5,000m; / 21.08 hrs – Men’s 110m hurdles /  21.23 hrs – Women’s 200m : for these events – the participation of the French athletes will be worked out at the end of the French Championships.

21:33 –Women’s 1,500m – Fanjanteino Felix – this season she ran a time of 2:02.55 over 800m as well as performing successfully over the winter by finishing 5th in the World Indoor Championships – she now has a great opportunity to measure-up against the world’s best, including some of her future adversaries at the European Championships in Barcelona.

21.46 hrs – Men’s 100 m – Christophe Lemaitre has never run in the Stade de France. For his first race on the Île de France track, the MEETING AREVA will give him the opportunity to run with the cream of world sprinting, including Jamaicans Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell. It’ll be a fantastic chance for the young athlete from Aix-les-Bains to gauge the progress he has made, a performance which has already been boosted this season by a new personal best of 10’’02, set during the European Team championships in Bergen. Christophe Lemaitre makes no secret of his aim: he’s hoping to make the most of the opposition to run a time of under 10 seconds. The other two French athletes to watch are Martial Mbandjock, winner of the 200 m in Bergen (20’’55) and Ronald Pognon.

 

More information www.meetingareva.com

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TICKETING

1- At Stadefrance.com

2- In the usual networks and retail outlets (Fnac – Carrefour – Auchan – Virgin – E.Leclerc – Géant)

3- By telephone on 0892 700 900 (0.34 Euro/min)

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