Renaud Lavillenie at the 2016 All Star Perche meeting in Clermont Ferrand (© Jean-Pierre Durand)
Renaud Lavillenie went over six metres for the first time this year – and for the 15th time in his career – when he cleared a world-leading 6.02m at his own All Star Perche meeting in the French town of Clermont Ferrand on Sunday (21).
Lavillenie went over the bar at this height before unsuccessfully attempting a world record 6.17m, and his third attempt could certainly be considered respectable.
The Olympic champion and world record-holder was flawless until the world record height, clearing 5.70m, 5.84m, 5.91m and 6.02m all on his first attempt.
However, Lavillenie had to be in his best form as he had Canada’s world champion Shawn Barber – showing little signs of tiredness after rushing from Glasgow where he had won at the final IAAF World Indoor Tour meeting on Saturday afternoon – for company at this height after the pair were the only men to go clear at 5.91m from the five men attempting this height.
Poland’s 2011 world champion Pawel Wojciechowski, USA’s Sam Kendricks and Greece’s world indoor champion Konstadinos Filippidis all departed at 5.91m, having cleared 5.84m.
Filippidis took third place, and a national indoor record, on countback with Kendrick fourth after the second best competition of his career.
Less auspicious was Germany's 2013 world champion Raphael Holzdeppe, failing at his opening height of 5.70m.
Brazil’s Fabiana Murer won the women’s contest from Greece’s Nikoleta Kyriakopoulou.
Both women cleared 4.71m, Murer on her second attempt and Kiriakopoulou on her third, before failing at 4.81m. The 2011 world champion got the verdict on countback, a remarkable recovery after she only cleared her opening height of 4.52m on her third attempt.
Elsewhere, Czech Republic’s world youth high jump champion Michaela Hruba added another centimetre to her own national junior record when she went over 1.95m in Prague on Saturday.
The height moves her up to equal-third on the world indoor U20 all-time list and with a 1998 birthday, and another year in the junior ranks, she will now have Mariya Kuchina’s world indoor U20 record of 1.97m in her sights.
For good measure, she is also now third on the 2016 senior world list.
On the second day of the Hungarian Indoor Championships in Budapest on Sunday, Balazs Baji clocked a 60m hurdles national record of 7.55 in his heat before winning the final in 7.62.
There was good triple jumping at the Romanian Indoor Championships in Bucharest over the weekend as Marian Oprea won the men’s event in 16.82m and Greek guest Paraskevi Papahristou won the women's contest with 14.21m, both athletes moving to fifth place on the 2016 world list.
Phil Minshull for the IAAF
