The men's pole vault competition in London was a dog fight. In the end, Renaud Lavillenie needed to use his experience to win the pole vault. Here is how they won.....
Renaud Lavillenie, 2011 Euro Indoors, photo by PhotoRun.net
Steve Hooker, the defending Olympic champion, just could not get started yesterday.
He made three attempts at 5.65m, and while his first attempt looked close, Mr. Hooker
seems to have his demons, we hope that he can overcome them. But for London, Steve
Hooker was out of the competition.
Brad Walker of the US, also no heighted. His third attempt looked like it was
a clearance, but the bar dropped as he was over it.
The competition was really between Bjorn Otto, Raphael Holzdeppe, and Renuad
Lavillenie.
The revelation of the competition was Raphael Holzdeppe, of Germany, who cleared 5.65m on
his second jump. At 5.75m, he needed two attempts. Then, it got interesting,
Raphael cleared 5.85m on his third attempt, which was a personal best.
Bjorn Otto, also of Germany,was jumping quite well. Bjorn cleared 5.50m, 5.65
on his first attempts. Bjorn took two attempts to clear 5.75m and 5.85m.
Renaud Lavillenie cleared 5.65m, 5.75m and 5.85m on his first attempts. He missed
5.91m on his first attempt.
Then, the complexion of the event changed when Bjorn Otto and then, Raphael Holzdeppe
cleared 5.91m on their first attempts.
So, Renaud Lavillenie is one smart Frenchmen. He realized, that to win the pole vault, he
needed to get to a height that Otto and Holzdeppe (who had scored a pb at 5.91m), passed
on the final two attempts at 5.91 meters. He passed his last two and moved to 5.97 meters.
On his second attempt, Renaud Lavillenie cleared 5.97 meters. Otto and Holzdeppe had missed
at 5.97m twice. Otto then missed on his third, and then Holzdeppe missed.
With those third misses, Bjorn Otto of Germany took the silver, and Raphael Holzdeppe took
the bronze medal.
All of France took a sigh of relief as Renuad Lavillenie took the gold medal!
Renauld took an attempt at 6.02 meters, missed, and passed to 6.07 meters. He missed both
jumps at 6.07 meters.
Renaud Lavillenie was very happy afterwards. " My coach had wanted me to go for the
world record. I was not sure. It will come, it is all about progression."
10 August 2012 - 19:00
| Position | Bib | Athlete | Country | Mark | . |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1758 | Renaud Lavillenie | FRA | 5.97 | (OR) |
| 2 | 1917 | Björn Otto | GER | 5.91 | . |
| 3 | 1904 | Raphael Holzdeppe | GER | 5.91 | (PB) |
| 4 | 2833 | Dmitry Starodubtsev | RUS | 5.75 | . |
| 5 | 1817 | Steven Lewis | GBR | 5.75 | . |
| 5 | 2817 | Evgeniy Lukyanenko | RUS | 5.75 | (SB) |
| 7 | 1980 | Konstadínos Filippídis | GRE | 5.65 | . |
| 8 | 1518 | Jan Kudlicka | CZE | 5.65 | . |
| 9 | 1763 | Romain Mesnil | FRA | 5.50 | . |
| 9 | 1915 | Malte Mohr | GER | 5.50 | . |
| 11 | 2663 | Lukasz Michalski | POL | 5.50 | . |
| 12 | 1611 | Igor Bychkov | ESP | 5.50 | . |
| . | 1046 | Steven Hooker | AUS | NM | . |
| . | 3259 | Brad Walker | USA | NM | . |
| Athlete | 5.50 | 5.65 | 5.75 | 5.85 | 5.91 | 5.97 | 6.02 | 6.07 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Renaud Lavillenie | - | O | O | O | X- | XO | X- | XX |
| Björn Otto | O | O | XO | XO | O | XX- | X | |
| Raphael Holzdeppe | - | XO | XO | XXO | O | XXX | ||
| Dmitry Starodubtsev | O | XO | O | XXX | ||||
| Steven Lewis | XO | - | XO | XXX | ||||
| Evgeniy Lukyanenko | XO | - | XO | XXX | ||||
| Konstadínos Filippídis | O | XO | XXX | |||||
| Jan Kudlicka | O | XXO | XXX | |||||
| Romain Mesnil | O | XXX | ||||||
| Malte Mohr | O | - | XXX | |||||
| Lukasz Michalski | XO | XXX | ||||||
| Igor Bychkov | XXO | XXX | ||||||
| Steven Hooker | - | XXX | ||||||
| Brad Walker | - | XXX |
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