Lavillenie did not enter the competition until 5.75m, by which point several of his key opponents had made their exit on a hard night for vaulting, including Canada’s 22-year-old world champion Shawnacy Barber, who could not go beyond 5.50m.
Advertisement
It was also the first athletics gold achieved by a Brazilian man since Joaquim Cruz won the men’s 800m at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
In a competition that had started late – and then been interrupted at least one more time – by the weather, Da Silva installed himself in Brazil’s sporting history with an audacious gamble that paid off in golden fashion. Rather than try to match Lavillenie at 5.98m, Da Silva chose to skip that height and improve the record by pushing the Frenchman to 6.03m, ten centimeters over Da Silva’s previous personal best.
Da Silva was celebrating.
The Czech Republic’s Jan Kudlicka and Poland’s Piotr Lisek tied for fourth with a best leap of 5.75m.
Italy’s Elia Viviani recovered from a crash before breaking down in floods of tears in his parents’ arms after winning the Olympic cycling men’s omnium gold on Monday.
Felix looked to have the women’s 400m gold in her keeping, only for frontrunner Miller to dive headlong over the line and finish just seven hundredths of a second ahead of the American. Racing in the ninth heat and cheered every step of the way by the sparse but vocal crowd, the Jamaican led coming off the bend and was able to take his foot off the gas to progress comfortably to Wednesday’s semi-finals.
The 22-year-old then chose to begin jumping at the opening height of 5.50 metres, something he did at last year’s worlds en route to his victorious Canadian record of 5.93 metres.
Overcome with emotion, Miller remained on the ground for several minutes after her victory.
Rudisher defended his title in the fastest time in the world this year.
“A local kid put that right in spectacular fashion – destroying his old personal best, smashing the Olympic record, dethroning the reigning champion”.
Waiting to receive his gold medal, Braz has in turn waved to the crowd to applaud the French, expressing incomprehension. Team USA picked up a surprise medal in the event with Clayton Murphy taking third. “It was my mum’s birthday today so it is such a gift that she is here today”, – Wlodarczyk after breaking the world record to win gold in the women’s hammer. If Thiago Braz missed, he would claim silver. It wasn’t the first time they whistled me. “I admit that it was too easy for me, but nobody told me about the record”. “I’m happy, I wanted gold but I got my medal, it’s really nice”.
Advertisement
Lavillenie added silver to his gold from London 2012 and American Sam Kendricks, 23, won the bronze medal with a leap of 5.85 meters. “I like that”, he said.
