Renaud Lavillenie went to the  World Indoor Championships as one of the favourites for a Pole Vault medal but the Frenchman crashed out in the qualifying round. Nevertheless, the 2009 European Indoor champion believes he'll be better for the experience.

"Not to get beyond the qualifying competition in Doha (when he could only clear 5.45m) was a terrible failure but one that will make me stronger," said Lavillenie, commenting on his website www.renaud-lavillenie.com.

Lavillenie, who not only took the gold medal in Torino last March but also got the World Championships bronze medal last summer, admitted that he couldn't quite put his finger on what went wrong after an otherwise outstanding indoor season when he won six of his eight competitions before getting to Doha.

"The failure is difficult to explain but this sometimes happens in the Pole Vault because the competitions in this event are difficult. All great champions have already gone through this," he added ruefully.

"My vault at 5.45m was good. There was then a problem with the uprights which caused a 20 minutes delay but technically I was still jumping well."

Lavillenie cleared 5.85m to win the French title in February, the best vault indoors in the world this winter before arriving in Doha.

Outdoors, he has a best of 6.01m, set when winning at the  SPAR European Team Championships in Leiria, Portugal, last summer. His performance, when he joined the elite club of men that have broken the six-metre barrier was one of the highlights of the inaugural event.

After the Doha disappointment, he returned to training last Monday.

"I needed two weeks off just to clear my head but it was also useful as I will be able to go into my summer training and attack it straight away," added Lavillenie, suggesting that he will have not any mental or physical impediment about returning straight back into the fray.

"Now, I will have to use this failure (in Doha) and bounce back better than ever, I'm sure my Doha failure will make me stronger in Barcelona. I'm now going to be getting ready for Barcelona and make sure that I arrive there with all guns blazing."

The 2010  European Athletics Championships will be held in Barcelona between 26 July and 1 August.

             Article traduit en Francais