Press release , December 1, 2017

Pole vault high flyer comes to INDOOR MEETING in Karlsruhe

Ticket pre sales are outstanding

There is probably no better place in Karlsruhe to introduce a high flyer. High above the rooftops of Durlach and Karlsruhe on the Turmberg terrace, Renaud Lavillenie, world record holder and Olympic gold medalist in the , attended the press conference for the 34th INDOOR MEETING Karlsruhe and chatted about the coming months with sporting director Alain Blondel. And first off, the most important is that: “The achievements in training are once again on the right track. To have that feeling, as in the years 2015 and 2016, where I so often managed to jump the six meters, returns again,” said the athletics superstar. He spent two months pausing to regain his former strength after many injury problems.

“I'm back in training since six weeks. The INDOOR MEETING Karlsruhe will be the second full-time meeting for me and is very important to me. On the one hand, it's an excellent meeting with great fans, but I also want to perform well in the run-up to the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham,” said Lavillenie, who became a father in 2017. Even the question regarding the Meeting record, which the Frenchman himself holds with 5.91 meters, he does not leave unanswered: “I know that this event is very important for the audience. I will be in very good condition and, in any case, I want to attack the hall record.” “To which height?” “I want to increase it at least between one and ten centimeters,” says Lavillenie, who himself organizes a pole vault Meeting in his home town of Clermont-Ferrand.

Once again, the six meters are soaring through the event on the Turmberg terrace - and when you listen spellbound to Lavillenie, you do believe that the 31-year-old is again fully focused on his high-altitude flights. “I love this sport and I can't think about anything else. I love the sense of both risk and control in pole vaulting.” This is just the feeling that made the 31-year-old the best pole vaulter in the world, who on February 15, 2014, in , , succeeded in beating the 20-year-old fantastic world record of (6.15 meters) by one centimeter to 6.16 meters. On February 3, 2018, at the INDOOR MEETING Karlsruhe, the 2012 Olympic champion, born in Barbezieux-Saint-Hilaire, wants to fly high again.

Now Lavillenie, who is one of the top stars of the 34th INDOOR MEETING Karlsruhe, will have the honor of opening the IAAF World Tour. In the events at Karlsruhe, Düsseldorf

(6.2), Madrid (8.2), Boston (10.2), Torun (15.2), and the final in Glasgow (25.2), the winner of each discipline is said to be “On towards the World Cup in Birmingham.” For the World Cup wildcard, there is still a $20,000 winners' premium, which the following disciplines at the INDOOR MEETING in Karlsruhe can lay the foundation for: The women's 60 meter hurdles, the 400 meter and 1,500 meter races, and the high and long jump. The men, in addition to the pole vault, compete in 60 meter, 800 meter and 3,000 meter. Also, the sports director Alain Blondel has added the men's long jump and the women's 60 meter race into the program. In addition, Blondel was able to announce the successful TV marketing: For the next six years, the EBU, European Broadcasting Union (EUROVISION), and the ESPN Media Distribution have acquired the worldwide rights to broadcast the IAAF World Indoor Tour meetings. “We have reached an enormous milestone,” states sports director Alain Blondel. “The tour wins renewed international reputation through this.” Even the athletics fans recognizes the importance of the INDOOR MEETING Karlsruhe. The ticket sales are higher than ever before. “There are only a few hundred tickets left, and some blocks are already sold out,” says a happy Martin Wacker, managing coordinating director of KARLSRUHE EVENT GmbH. “The athletics fans in the region know the value that the INDOOR MEETING has gained in recent years through the IAAF World Indoor Tour,” says Wacker.

Tickets to the 34th INDOOR MEETING Karlsruhe on February 3, 2018 are available at the Tourist-Information Karlsruhe, Bahnhofplatz 6, 76137 Karlsruhe, Germany, by telephone: +49 721 25000, and online at: www.ticketmaster.de. www.meeting-karlsruhe.de www.facebook.com/IndoorMeetingKarlsruhe www.twitter.com/INDOOR_MEETING www.instagram.com/indoormeetingkarlsruhe