Czech Republic’s Jan Kudlicka and Poland’s Pitor Lisek matched Lavillenie’s feat with Braz staying alive thanks to a second-time clearance.
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Indeed it’s more normal for athletics audiences to demand a hush of themselves as the pole vaulters take their final run-up, unlike the high jump, where the competitors sometimes incite the crowd to join them in a slow hand clap.
Instead of concentrating exclusively on his final jump, Lavillenie, gave the crowd the thumbs-down. He paused his preparation to offer two thumbs down to the fans.
I had to fix my mind on my technique, forget the people. “Now I have to wait four years to get back the gold”, the 29-year-old said.
Both cleared 5.85m first time, then the Frenchman soared over an Olympic record 5.98m.
You just about had us feeling sorry for you, Renaud.
Whether the booing distracted him, and how much, can’t be measured. “It was 16 years ago that she won in Sydney and I’m very happy that I continued this tradition”.
“You see it in football. Track and field has no place for that”. “What’s important about the sport is that when you train hard for one of the biggest competitions of your life and you have a crowd like that it is hard to say nothing”.
“This is the moment I have been waiting for”, Miller said.
The International Olympic Committee has largely avoided saying anything critical about Rio, Rio 2016’s organisers or Brazilian fans, but its spokesman Mark Adams did say Olympic bosses would prefer it if “the passion is channelled in a good way”. It’s the first time they’ve been against not only me but all the other pole vaulters except the Brazilian guy. We’ve not seen this since.
Germany, under the rule of the Nazi party, then had an open policy of discrimination against Jews, black people and “non-Aryans”.
Against a back drop of raucous fan cheering, Da Silva skipped an attempt at 5.98 metres and pushed hot favourite Lavillenie to 6.03, which the Frenchman failed twice and the Brazilian passed at the second attempt to set an Olympic record.
Lavillenie’s excitable coach, Philippe d’Encausse, was even evoking some mystical forces – maybe even candomblé – to explain it.
“There is no respect, no fair play”.
Appeals for silence were made before each race at the Olympic stadium on Tuesday night.
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But on the continuing problem of Rio’s half-empty venues, which was glaringly obvious during Monday’s memorable night of athletics, neither Adams nor Andrada had any new answers. And for the USA men’s basketball team, that means an opponent they certainly have some familiarity with. He hit the bar with his first go at 6.03m but sailed over with his second to send those in the stadium – which was maybe a quarter full – delirious. But he probably doesn’t need it; he reportedly earned more than a million Euros before tax in 2014.
