The eleventh leg of the IAAF Diamond League arrives in Stockholm tomorrow evening after a five-week hiatus, as the DN Galan meeting welcomes the world\u2019s finest athletes to the Swedish capital\u2019s 1912 Olympic stadium.<\/p>\n
Ahead of their participation in the venue which holds the world record for the arena with the most world records at 83, no less than 18 newly crowned continental champions will compete, and five of the best jump specialists from around the globe spoke to the world\u2019s media this morning. <\/p>\n
World indoor pole vault record holder, Renaud Lavillenie<\/strong> is in Stockholm fresh from his third consecutive European outdoor Championships victory in Zurich last week, and the 27-year-old Frenchman is in confident mood:<\/p>\n \u201c5.80m for the gold (in Zurich) was very impressive for me, it was a good competition so I\u2019m very happy,\u201d he explained, \u201cI showed I was in good shape and I want to get back at a high level for the next couple of weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n On his late entry in the continental championship final, Lavillenie continued:<\/p>\n \u201cDuring the season, I started at 5.60m and I started at 5.76m in Zurich. I don\u2019t get nervous when I start higher, it\u2019s more the weather conditions which make me nervous. <\/p>\n \u201cThis summer was very complicated with the wind. When I tried 6.01m in Zurich, I had taken a three-week break to focus on training, I was confident but the wind wasn\u2019t good \u2013 I just need to be patient.\u201d<\/p>\n The Olympic and world indoor champion revealed that he would start tomorrow\u2019s competition at either 5.60m or 5.70m depending on the weather. <\/p>\n Unbeaten in his 12 competitions this summer and with a 5.92m season\u2019s best, Lavillenie said:<\/p>\n \u201cI have no problem motivating myself as I have a lot of goals \u2013 this year, they were to win Paris and the Euro\u2019s in Zurich, and I want to go over six meters again. I love jumping so it\u2019s no problem to stay motivated.\u201d<\/p>\n Sweden\u2019s 20-year-old Melker Sv\u00e4rd Jakobsson also spoke to the media and the 2011 world youth silver medallist has been in fine form following his 5.60m lifetime best in May: <\/p>\n \u201cThis is my first IAAF Diamond League – I feel good and I\u2019m excited for tomorrow,\u201d Sv\u00e4rd Jakobsson explained.<\/p>\n \u201cI had a lot of trouble with my run-up in Zurich (where he failed to qualify for the final) so it was very hard to jump.<\/p>\n \u201cMy goal this year is to jump 5.70m so I hope it comes soon. We jump differently but I hope to learn a lot from Lavillenie.\u201d<\/p>\n A trio of female long jumpers also attended the traditional pre-event press conference, with American duo, Tianna Bartoletta<\/strong> and Brittney Reese<\/strong> in addition to local girl, Erica Jarder<\/strong> in attendance. <\/p>\n 2005 world champion, Bartoletta has an impressive 7.02m season\u2019s best and has notched up IAAF Diamond League victories in Oslo and Glasgow this season.<\/p>\n The 28-year-old 2006 world indoor champion revealed: <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had a long stretch without competition so I want to get back into competition mode and I\u2019m expecting it to be a very good competition, it\u2019s the first of many for me on this trip. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really special to have a break in between competitions and it was nice to go back home, see my family and get in the weights room to build up the strength I lost from travelling around the circuit. It\u2019s like pressing the restart button and I\u2019ve come back stronger in this second half of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n The 2012 4x100m Olympic champion also has a swift 11.18 100m clocking to her name this summer and she continued:<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m blessed to be back on the circuit, we will all step onto the runway tomorrow night and try to win \u2013 my focus is just on myself and trying to execute my plan as best I can.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, I\u2019m training with Darya Klishina (Russia\u2019s European indoor champion), having changed coach after my last coach moved to the UK. It\u2019s been a tough transition but I take great pride and ownership in my training now.\u201d<\/p>\n Reese,<\/strong> meanwhile, explained the reasons behind her change in technique in 2014: \u201cI felt I wasn\u2019t where I needed to be on the runway, I\u2019m the queen of fouling so in a non-championships year, I\u2019ve experimented \u2013 so far, it\u2019s been good. \u201cI\u2019m grateful to be here despite the weather but that doesn\u2019t bother me. The crowd\u2019s always great here and I\u2019ll look to use their help tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n Stockholm-born Jarder has this year collected European indoor bronze and a 6.67m personal best, and the 28-year-old world finalist spoke of her love of her home city:<\/p>\n \u201cThe Stockholm stadium is by far my favourite track and the crowd is always supportive so it\u2019s my favourite competition,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t get exactly what I wanted out of Zurich, it was very hard but looking back, I\u2019m kind of proud of myself and I\u2019m looking forward to showing what I can do tomorrow. <\/p>\n Nicola Bamford<\/em> for the organisers of the DN Galan meeting, Stockholm.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photo: Deca Text & Bild<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"city":[],"class_list":["post-1538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stockholm"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stockholm.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stockholm.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stockholm.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stockholm.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stockholm.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stockholm.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stockholm.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stockholm.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stockholm.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1538"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stockholm.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=1538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u201cI\u2019ve been working on a new approach so I\u2019m more consistent in the run-up and on the board, that\u2019s my main goal, not to foul so much. <\/p>\n
\u201cNow, I do a four-step walk-in ahead of the run-up and now I limit my dip at take-off on the board.\u201d
The 27-year-old Olympic champion, three-time world outdoor champion and two-time world indoor champion has a 6.92m season\u2019s best and said of her visit to Sweden:<\/p>\n