Lavillenie wins gold in Portland
On March 17th 2016, the pole vault event of the indoor track and field championships took place at the Oregon Convention Center. Among the competitors was world record holder, Renaud Lavillenie (from France). He walked out of the event, as some anticipated, with a gold medal. He even made an effort to go after his world record. It was an unsuccessful effort, but certainly not an unsuccessful night.
Among the other competitors was Sam Kendricks (from the USA). He did not fare badly either; finishing behind Lavillenie. The Frenchman won the even by vaulting over a height of 19 feet and 9 inches. As mentioned before, he then attempted to break his own record, which is also the world record, by going for a height of 20 feet and 2 ž inches. Unfortunately, he was unable to clear the bar on all efforts. He would soon have a gold medal to comfort him.
Coming in second, was Kendricks. He won the US indoor championship the week before, but fell short of winning this time around. To close out the top three positions was Piotr Lisek (From Poland). He clinched the bronze by clearing a height 18 feet and 10 Âź inches.
On the women’s side of the night, Jenn Suhr claimed the ultimate victory. Suhr is the world indoor record holder, as well as an Olympic gold medal winner. Clearing a height of 16 feet and ž inch sealed the win for her. The silver medalist on the night was Sandi Morris, and bronze went to the Greek pole vaulter, Ekaterini Stefarindi.
On one of Lavillenie’s attempts at the world record, there was a moment of trepidation after he landed between the pads. Concerns were soon dismissed by him laughing as he got back up. "It's not so often that I do something like that. It happens," he explained. "Pole vault is very dangerous and intense." Indeed, it is. Fortunately, his skill and experienced prevailed in this situation.
(To be continued in next post)
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