Paris, like so many host cities on the IAAF Diamond League circuit, is once again in thrall to that sporting phenomenon known as Usain Bolt. Portrayed by the meeting organizers as a masked superhero in much of the pre-event publicity, the ‘Bolt-factor’ has helped make the AREVA meeting on Saturday (6) one of the biggest athletics meetings in the world this year. In the vault, France’s 2012 Olympic and European champion Renaud Lavillenie, another of the meeting ‘superheroes’, looked a bit less like Superman when failing to clear a height in Lausanne on Thursday and so will be looking for redemption in front of his home crowd in the Pole Vault, a competition which sees Greece’s Lausanne winner Konstadinos Filippidis in action again, along with Germany’s talented Raphael Holzdeppe. more
