(Reuters) – Olympic 2012 pole vault champion Renaud Lavillenie of France withdrew from the European Indoor Athletics championships with a calf injury on Friday.
“During my final training session this morning, I felt a sharp pain in my right calf,” the 34-year-old, who was looking forward to challenging world record holder Armand Duplantis in Torun, Poland, said in a statement.
“I don’t want to make the injury worse and compromise my participation in the Games this summer.”
Lavillenie, who cleared 6.06 metres last Saturday, held the world record at 6.16 metres since 2014. However, Swede Duplantis broke it last year with 6.17 metres in Torun before increasing it by another centimetre in Glasgow.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
