Already a double reigning French champion outdoors, the Niçoise Margot Chevrier has once again made her mark. In difficult conditions, the pole vaulter even took the opportunity to attempt the Olympic qualifying standards.
And that’s five for Margot Chevrier. The 23-year-old pole vaulter won a new French championship title in Albi. Undefeated since the summer of 2021 in national championships (two titles indoors and three outdoors), she secured first place with a jump of 4.61m. A satisfying result, considering the young athlete’s goals before the start of the competition. “First of all, I want to win this title. Then, there is obviously the idea of performance. The Olympic eligibility period is open. So the mark at 4.73m, the minimum for the Games, that’s on my mind”, Margot Chevrier shared before the event. This second objective is all the more legitimate since the athlete from the Marseille region had recently cleared a bar at 4.71m during the Diamond League’s Paris. That was on June 9. The Frenchwoman finished second in the competition.
Conditions Too Difficult
In the Albi heat, the afternoon temperature hovered around 30°C in the shade. Added to that, there were gusts of wind at 70 km/h, making conditions not exactly ideal for delivering a great performance. Despite her ambition, Margot Chevrier waited for her opponents to fail at 4.31m before starting her contest. This is proof of her undisputed dominance in her discipline. Only Ninon Chapelle went as far as 4.51m in her last attempt. It took only four jumps for Margot Chevrier to win (one attempt at 4.41m and three at 4.61m).
Even though the Niçoise’s competitive instinct pushed her to attempt a bar at 4.73m, reason prevailed after her second attempt. After more than two hours of waiting under the scorching sun, it was difficult to handle poles capable of qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympics. “The two attempts I made were borderline because there were not many people left racing. Behind, I have very sturdy poles. These are poles I’ve only used a few times and with which I haven’t cleared any bars yet. These were the poles to use today, but with freshness, and I no longer had that freshness.”
But the essential point lies elsewhere. With this new French championship title and her impressive form displayed, Margot Chevrier will be a serious contender for the podium at the World Championships in Budapest from August 19 to 27.
