Pole vault world record holder Renaud Lavillenie will launch his 2016 IAAF Diamond League campaign in Shanghai on 14 May it was announced today by the meeting organisers.

The flying Frenchman confirmed his fabulous form when he won his second world indoor crown in Portland last Thursday with a championship record of 6.02 metres, taking just two vaults to secure the gold medal. But Lavillenie is already looking forward to the outdoor season where he hopes to retain his Olympic title and win an unprecedented seventh Diamond Race for his event.

Lavillenie makes no secret of his love for the Diamond League having won the Diamond Race more times than any other athlete. At the Van Damme Memorial meeting in Brussels last September, the Olympic champion clinched his sixth Diamond Trophy when he cleared 5.95m, maintaining his record as the only athlete in any event to have won the Diamond League every year since the circuit of world-class, one-day meetings started in 2010.