Brazil’s Thiago Braz da Silva bettered Renaud Lavillenie, the defending Olympic pole vault champion from France, much to the delight of the fans in Rio on Monday.
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The last Brazilian Olympic gold medallist in a athletics event was Maurren Maggi, who won the women’s long jump.
The last man to win consecutive 800m titles was New Zealand’s Peter Snell in 1960 and 1964.
The Frenchman made four immaculate first-time clearances at 5.75m, 5.85m, 5.93m and 5.98m, by which time only the Brazilian was still in contention, although the latter carried with him two fouls recorded at 5.75m and 5.93m – the latter height matching his South American record of a year ago.
The crowd was loud in its appreciation of a silver at least for Da Silva, cheering as Sam Kendricks of the United States had to settle for bronze after a third failure at 5.93m.
The booes came when Da Silva and Lavillenie were the only remaining competitors of a thriller the Brazilian decided with 6.03m for the nation’s first ever medal in the men’s pole vault and at the Rio Games athletics. He lost his gold too, when he failed at 6.08 meters, allowing Braz da Silva’s 6.03 Olympic record to stand.
“I thought, “this is that day”, she said.
“I am very happy”.
But Lavillenie could not hide his disgust at the crowd’s conduct.
“It’s the Olympics, if there’s no respect in the Olympics, where can we get respect?” the Frenchman said.
“I am very, very sad and disappointed about the Brazilian public which was in the stadium”.
Shericka Jackson of Jamaica claimed bronze in 49.85.
Inexorably, Felix – running in lane four – ran down Miller’s lead in the final 20 metres – to five metres, four, three.as the line neared Miller made a final despairing dive.and it proved enough.
Speaking to reporters after the race she choked back tears as she digested a shattering loss.
“I didn’t think about lunging myself”.
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Earlier the action in the stadium had been halted after torrential rain lashed the arena, forcing officials to rerun two heats of the 110m hurdles.
