This year’s Lausanne Diamond League will once again give the pole vault its slot and it will be held away from the main stadium
Every host on the Diamond League circuit provides its unique selling point and for quite a few – especially those in continental Europe – the biggest one is street meets.
Olympic Pole Vault Street meets
If you watch a major championships then you’ll find that all of the action takes place in the stadium, but certain Diamond League meets offer a more intimate viewing opportunity for fans outside of the main arena.
Street meets allow spectators to get up close and personal with the athletes, which is especially important for field events as they can feel distant at times in a vast stadium.
The pole vault is one of the best examples of an event that works brilliantly on the streets, with spectators lining the sides of the runway and around the pit to witness some of the best in the world launching themselves into the sky.
The Lausanne Diamond League is one of the most picturesque settings and takes place on the Place de la Navigation on the shores of Lake Geneva (August 21).
Lausanne’s pole vault street meet (Getty)
This year’s line-up is headlined by double Olympic champion and world record-holder Mondo Duplantis, who claimed his second gold in Paris with a new best mark of 6.25m.
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He loves it in Lausanne and has cleared heights of 6.07m and 6.10m in the Swiss city.
Sam Kendricks and Emmanouil Karalis, who claimed silver and bronze respectively behind Duplantis in Paris, will take part.
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Olympic champion from London 2012 Renaud Lavillenie, who is still going strong at 37, is also down to compete.
Ahead of the Lausanne Diamond League, here are some of the most picturesque shots from pole vault street meets down the years.
Luke Cutts at the Great North City Games in 2013 (Newcastle)Â
Luke Cutts (Mark Shearman)
Renaud Lavillenie at the Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games in 2014 (London)Â
Renaud Lavillenie (Mark Shearman)
Yarisley Silva at the Great City Games in 2015 (Manchester)Â
Yarisley Silva (Mark Shearman)
Romana Malacova at the European Games in 2015 (Baku)Â
Romana Malacova (Getty)
General pole vault shot in train station at the Diamond League in 2018 (Zurich)
Pole vault at Zurich Diamond League (Mark Shearman)
A general pole vault shot of Pont d’Arcole – an event to celebrate the Olympics in 2018 (Paris)Â
Pole vault in Paris (Getty)
General pole vault shot of the Rhein-Ruhr street meet in 2023 (Dusseldorf)Â
Rhein-Ruhr pole vault meet (Getty)
Duplantis shielded his Olympic gold in the Stade de France in some style, working on his own reality record to 6.25 meters. n Lausanne, the Swede partook in a City Occasion hung on an esplanade lining Lac Leman – – better referred to in English as Lake Geneva – – 24 hours before the primary charge at the Stade Olympique de la Pontaise.
The runway was raised off the tiled walkway, with a great many fans stored in meters, the bar and landing mat put under a round covering, enormous screens permitting yet more passers-by a perspective on occasions.
Yet again it was Duplantis Roads in front of the opposition, winning with a best vault of 6.15 meters.
“I’m truly blissful about it. I had a truly great time. It was truly good to venture out on the track,” Duplantis said.
“I would rather not say that I was stressed, however it’s consistently somewhat of a question mark, I surmise, the following meet after something like the Olympics, intellectually.
“The beyond about fourteen days, it’s been difficult to awaken. Not in a psychological manner, not in like that, but rather exceptionally drained intellectually, recently depleted, even toward the beginning of today.”
Duplantis said the distinction between Olympic gold at the Stade de France and winning a City Occasion was miles separated, however oddly practically identical.
“My last contest, it resembled 75,000 people watching me,” he said.
“In any case, you get such a cool association with the group when they’re so near you, it’s only a greater amount of this individual kind of feeling.”
Duplantis added: “It’s simply a truly cool thing. It’s a truly astonishing thing and I simply love these sort of occasions.
“It truly is something extraordinary for our game and something incredible for post vaulting.”
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