Silver medalist at the world juniors, the Sottevillaise pole vaulter Élise Russis aims for Paris 2024

On an athletics stadium, they are always like out of time, practicing one of the most demanding disciplines. On their jumper, the pole vaulters perform jumps and refine their technique, the famous perfect gesture as a quest.

That evening around them, on the track of the Sottevillais stadium, children train on series of 50 meters, long jumpers do ranges, and cross-country skiers have the inner lane to split on series of 500 meters. The pole vaulter, them, on their saltire, are three, imperturbable.

A vice-world champion on the stadium

Among them, there is Élise Russis, 17 years old. She takes advice from her evening companions, and then gives it, too. Athletes from all other disciplines regularly come to greet her, and some congratulate her because they “had not seen her since”. This is because the young woman won, on August 18, 2021, a junior world vice-champion title in the discipline in Nairobi, Kenya.

This silver medal, she explains, did not necessarily surprise her. She had prepared for, and even hoped for, gold. But the pole vault is cruel, and despite the tie with the winner on the highest bar crossed, the tiebreaker in the number of jumps made played to the detriment of the Rouennaise.

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???????? Elise Russis took 2nd place in the pole vault final at the Junior World Championships with 4.15m!

???? The athlete from Stade Sottevillais 76 opens the Bleuets counter to #Nairobi2021 ! pic.twitter.com/E2sPP2CMlq

– FFA (@FFAthletisme) August 18, 2021

Perch from 10, 11 years old

Élise Russis started pole vault “at 10, 11”. And it is no coincidence that she turned to this very technical discipline: “It’s family! My father and my three brothers practiced, so by dint of seeing them… ”Moreover, it is the father who officiates as coach of the pole vaulter.

At Sotteville, the family’s heart club, she trains four to five times a week. “Difficult” to combine with her studies in the first year of Staps in Mont-Saint-Aignan, but she is doing well. Next year if all goes well, the physiotherapy school where she hopes to study will allow her to better organize her schedule, to work more on her pole.

Because crowned with her title of vice-world champion, the Sottevillaise does not intend to stop there: “Next year, I hope for gold, this time at the world juniors. And in the longer term, there will be the objectives of Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028! The calm and serenity that she exudes when she talks about these somewhat crazy deadlines for ordinary people are impressive.

“It will take a lot of practice! “

Because the march is still high: the minimums to qualify for the Olympic Games are generally bars at 4.70 meters. A height 50 centimeters above his current record. To succeed ? “It will take a lot of practice! She smiles. “But the records, on pole vault, we generally improve them step by step. We understand something and we gain several centimeters at once. ”

Tonight I attend a training session of Élise Russis, the new nugget of the @SSottevillais76 athletics, vice-champion of the junior world in pole vault 2021.
Admitted objectives: the title next year, then #Paris2024…
His portrait soon on @ 76actu ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/ki1uEAzQf8

– Jean-Baptiste Morel (@JB__Morel) September 15, 2021

Understand, seek, analyze… So each one examines the jumps of the others, tries to bring them the advice which will allow them to go higher. And the jumps are linked and repeated, and the bodies learn, and the marks are refined … A long work of patience which makes you aware of the need for calm and serenity noted earlier. Beyond these qualities, “you have to get your bearings in space, be skilled, have strength, speed, and not be afraid”, to be a good pole vaulter, according to Élise Russis.

“Studies have shown that in women, we reach our best level with the pole vault around the age of 28. “So she has plenty of time… This shows if her current performances are promising and provide hope for the (very) big deadlines to come!

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