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Renaud Lavillenie said last week in an interview that he will be part of "Decastar", a end-of-season competition for decathlon's fanatics to take place in Talence (close to Bordeaux) on September the 14-15th http://ressources.crdp-aquitaine.fr/decastar/accueil_anglais.html#home. He's aiming at the decathlon world best in pole vault, held by Tim Lobinger since 1999 with 5.76. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decathlon#Decathlon_bests).

Even with the fatigue after the first day, a 5.80+ performance is conceivable, but the main challenge will be for him to score at least 7000 points in total, for the decathlon world best to be valid. So what do you PVP's bookmakers predict? (a useful link for your calculations: http://www.decathlon2000.com/eng/884/ )

I think 6500 is reachable for him, but 7000 is going to be hard without a huge improvement in the throws. I remember Galfione did 7400+ in 1997, with 5.75 in PV (it was the world decathlon best at that time). I also wonder what S. Bubka could have done in a decathlon, possibly 7500-8000.

Canag

I think he's got it. Base on his PR's posted on his webpage, and even calculating a slight decrease (i.e.11.20 in the 100m) I still think he can hit 7300 with a 5.80m vault.

Ok I got it wrong with the calculator, I've put 51 minutes in the 400m instead of 51 seconds... So my prediction is 7300-7400 with good conditions .

He was a multi-eventer before he was a pole vaulter, so I don't think 7000 points will be a major problem. I look forward to seeing the attempt!

he can really score 7000 points if he gets the 5.80(or higher) on PV. i think 5.90 would be maybe too much after being tired and all that stuff, but he should really make 5.80...let´s hope he can do it!!!

He scored 4711 pts before the pole vault (after 7 events - 11"38 / 7.18 / 9.23 / 1.87 / 53"88 / 15"13 / 30.02), it is going to be a tight game for the three remaining events (PV, JT and 1500). A 5.80 / 45.00 / 4'50" sequence would give him the 7K pts.
I'm not surprised by the relatively modest performances on throws, to me it highlights the fact that compared to the US, french trainers emphasize more on speed than on strength (Galfione despite his build did "only" 11.44 / 32.86 / 43.36 on SP/DT/JT when breaking his PV in Decathlon WR).

The decathlon PV WR won't be for this time, apparently a strong wind during the PV resulted in 5.47, then 38.86 in javelin and 5'14'' in 1500m, final result 6674 pts.

That's great that he finished. Few world class track athletes go so far outside their comfort zone to try new events and risk being bad at something.

I would second that Becca, plus I think his results in the 100m, LJ, HJ, and Hurdles of 11.38, 23'6 3/4", 6'11/2" and 15.13 respectively show that while Renaud is a good athlete he certainly is no superman, I am not putting him down, in fact it raises my already large respect for him. To me it shows that with these basic moderate performance parameters and with his relatively small size, with respect to Renaud's technique, and mental toughness, maybe we are looking at something truly amazing with his great PV results this year.
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