Lavillenie, Braz clear 5.90m WL, Stefanidi clears 4.83m MR

ROUEN (FRA, Feb 10): Superb battle of champions at the Pole Vault Perche Elite Tour meet in Kindarena before some 5000 spectators. Olympic winner Thiago Braz and World record holder Renaud Lavillenie tied for first with 590 World lead. Both had two failures before, Braz at 550 and 570 and Lavillenie at 578 and 584. After 590 clearances, real game started. Braz passed and Lavillenie tried only twice at 595. He saved last one for 6 metres, which Braz tried three times with first one to be the only good. Third Kostadinos Filippidis 570, fourth Kevin Menaldo 560 and fifth decathlon World champion Kevin Mayer 560 PB (and tried at 570, his PB before was 540). Also 560 for 6th Axel Chapelle and 7th Valentin Lavillenie. Olympic and World winner Katerina Stefanidi achieved in first attempt meet record 482 (after clearing 460 and 472 in first) and tried at World lead 492. British record holder Holly Bradshaw opened the season with 460 over Nikoleta Kyriakopoulou and Jirina Ptacnikova, both 450.