Prague: French pole vault star Renaud Lavillenie cleared a world-leading season best of 6.04 metres to win his fourth straight indoor gold at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague on Saturday.
The 28-year-old won three consecutive European indoor titles from 2009-2013, then went on to vault 6.16m a year ago to break Ukrainian Sergey Bubka’s world record dating from 1993.
The reigning Olympic champion had a go at 6.17m in Prague but failed to clear the record height.
“I’m really, really happy making the championship record. It was a great day for me in Prague today,” Lavillenie said.
His second attempt at 6.17m looked promising but “I was lacking a bit of energy, and only 99 per cent is not enough to do a new world record,” said Lavillenie.
He added he had also coached his younger brother Valentin — sixth for 5.65m — during the competition.
“We were expecting higher for Valentin [but] maybe one day we will be together on the podium.”
Talking about his prospects, Lavillenie said: “I don’t know how high I can jump, no one has limits. Maybe 6.20m, maybe more.”
Sergey Bubka agreed: “Over 6.20? I think it’s possible, this season he’s in very good shape, very focused.”
Russian pole vaulter Aleksandr Gripich came second ahead of Poland’s Piotr Lisek, both having cleared 5.85m.
Pavel Maslak pleased the frantic home crowd in the Czech capital with an impressive win on the 400 metre track in 45.33sec, which was six hundredths of a second slower than his world-leading time from last month.
The 2013 European indoor champion and 2014 world indoor champion beat Belgium’s Dylan Borlee, who clocked 46.25s for second spot ahead of Poland’s Rafal Omelko, who came home just 0.01s behind in third.
Nelson Evora of Portugal won the men’s triple jump with 17.21m, while Pablo Torrijos of Spain took silver with 17.04 followed by Romania’s Marian Oprea in bronze position with 16.91.
Ukraine’s Nataliya Pyhyda won the women’s 400 metres in 51.96sec, beating Spain’s Indira Terrero (52.63) and Britain’s Seren Bundy-Davies (52.64).
In the 3,000 metres, Turkey’s Ali Kaya took the gold among men in a championship record of 7min 38.42sec and Russian runner Yelena Korobkina won the women’s race in 8min 47.62 sec.
Mariya Kuchina from Russia won the high jump competition after a jump-off with Italy’s Alessia Trost, both having cleared 1.97m, ahead of Poland’s Kamila Licwinko with 1.94m, eight centimetres shy of her world-leading jump from February.
Serbia’s Ivana Spanovic took the long jump honours for 6.98m ahead of Germany’s Sosthene Taroum Moguenara (6.83) and Romania’s Florentina Marincu (6.79).
Anita Marton of Hungary won the women’s shot put in a national record of 19.23m ahead of Belarussian Yulia Leantsiuk (18.60) and Bulgaria’s Radoslava Mavrodieva (17.83).
