LEFT: France’s Renaud Lavillenie clears the bar to break Sergei Bubka’s 21-year-old indoor pole vault world record on Saturday night in Donetsk, at the same Donetsk meeting where the Ukrainian great set the old mark in 1993. Olympic champion Lavillenie, seen signing autographs (centre), vaulted 6.16 metres at his first attempt to improve the record by one centimetre and to make the moment sweeter, Bubka was present to witness it and was among the first to congratulate him (right).
DONETSK: Olympic champion Renaud Lavillenie of France established a pole vault indoor world record by clearing 6.16 metres at a meeting in Donetsk on Saturday.
“World Record ! 6.16 at my first attempt ! That’s incredible, I’m still in the air,” Lavillenie wrote on his official Twitter feed after the French Athletics Federation had flagged up the new record.
The previous mark of 6.15 was set by Sergei Bubka at the same event in Ukraine in 1993.
“It’s completely unbelievable,” Lavillenie, who took his head in his hands when he realised he had done it, later told French news channel BFM TV.
“I will need time to get back down on Earth. It was a mythical record. I knew I had the potential to do try it. But beat it so early, that’s something else.”
“I did not know what was happening to me. The sound was crazy. These are huge emotions. I am in a new dimension.”
Six-time outdoor world champion and 1988 Olympic gold medallist Bubka still holds the outdoor world record of 6.14.
Bubka, who on Saturday morning had hoped Lavillenie would beat his record in his hometown of Donetsk if it had to happen one day, stood up and clapped his hands along with the cheering crowd after his mark was erased off the books.
“That’s fantastic. It’s history and I’m very happy that Renaud does it here, in Donetsk, my town,” said Bubka, who came on the track to congratulate the Frenchman.
“I’m happy because my job is to help athletes perform. Athletics are my life. I’m pleased for him and for athletics,” added Bubka, who is the vice-president of the International Association of Athletics Federations.
The 27-year-old Lavillenie had made the world record his priority of the season and started using longer poles last year.
He has kept improving his best indoor in the past weeks and became the second highest man in history two weeks ago in Bygdoszcz, Poland, with a 6.08 metres effort.
On Saturday, he went on the brink of a disappointment after two failures at 6.01 metres, only to eventually succeed and beat the record on his first chance. Lavillenie, who won the Olympic title at the London Games and his first indoor world title the same year, has an outdoor best of 6.02 metres.
Lavillenie has so far failed to win an outdoor world title, collecting one silver and two bronze medals.
Meanwhile In New York, US champion Will Leer put on a brilliant closing kick to overtake Lawi Lalang and Nick Willis and win the featured Wanamaker Mile in a season leading time of three minutes, 52.47 seconds at the Millrose Games.
Leer, who also won the 3,000 meters at last year’s US indoor championships, was way back in the pack before making his move, charging to third place and then finishing with a stirring sprint to win the famed mile race.
“I kind of just lost track of the laps, you couldn’t hear a split,” the bearded Leer said after victory in the 107th Millrose Games in front of a noisy crowd of about 5,000 at The Armory.
“It was so loud in here, everybody was going nuts. I was moving up and then all of a sudden I heard ding, ding, ding, ding (for the bell lap) and I said ‘I gotta go, I’ve got a lot left.’”
Lalang, of Kenya and the University of Arizona, held the lead until the last straightaway and finished second in 3:52.88 to set a US collegiate record.
Two-time Olympian Willis of New Zealand tried to pass Lalang on the inside going down the stretch but was boxed in by the Kenyan and finished third in 3:53.02.
“Will (Leer) ran a fantastic race,” said the gracious Willis. “I just got beaten by a much better runner on the day.”
Missing from the race was world silver medalist Matthew Centrowitz, who withdrew due to an upper respiratory problem.
Rising teenage runner Mary Cain won the women’s mile in 4:27.73.
Cain, who recently broke her world junior indoor record for 1,000 meters, did not threaten any records after a slow early pace, but saw the race as another step in her development.
“One thing that I struggle with a lot is competing, being in a pack, running with a lot of bodies,” said Cain, a local favorite who grew up in nearby Bronxville, New York.
“I’m 17, still not really kind of used to it. So the goal today was to compete and race smart.
“That’s what I did and I’m really happy.”
Also beaming was Bernard Lagat, winner of the Wanamaker mile a record eight times, who won the rarely run 2,000 meters in an event named in honor of Finnish great Paavo Nurmi, who set a world record at the distance at The Armory in 1925.
Lagat, who set US records at 5,000 meters and two-miles at the previous two Millrose Games, clocked a time of 4:54.74, and said his victory was an homage to the great Nurmi. “He achieved so much,” said Lagat. “To even be mentioned in the same line as Paavo Nurmi, to me that is the greatest honour.”
Another world leader for this season was set in the 1,000 meters by Frenchman Pierre-Ambroise Bosse, who won with a time of 2:17.63.
American Wallace Spearmon was a no-show in the 300 metres after having travel problems on another snowy weekend in New York, but the husband and wife Eatons made it to Washington Heights and set personal bests.
Olympic decathlon champion and world record holder Ashton Eaton cleared an indoor personal best 5.35 meters in the pole vault in finishing fourth.
World heptathlon silver medallist Brianne Theisen Eaton finished fifth in the women’s 60 metres hurdles in 8.17 seconds for her best time. AGENCIES
