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European Champion Renaud Lavillenie with a great competition. All heights in first attempt 5.61: 5.76: 5.86: 5.91: 6.01 He cleared 6.07 as well but the bar was catched above the peg. He was of course totally disappointed first celebrating his new PR and the second highest jump in the world. Then the red flag.. Will link the Youtube video as soon as I find one.

Other:
2 128 OTTO, Björn GER 5.76
3 126 MOHR, Malte GER 5.76
4 137 FILIPPÍDIS, Konstadínos GRE 5.76
5 38 KUDLICKA, Jan CZE 5.71
6 108 LEWIS, Steven GBR 5.71 SB
6 214 SOBERA, Robert POL 5.71 PB
8 125 HOLZDEPPE, Raphael GER 5.61

Here is the jump

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRvWrzXqKhg

Sad...

Another video with more of his jumps, especially a huge 6.01 clearance starting at 3:25 :

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xxxfme ... pion_sport

I think that this rule should be changed (that has been my opinion for many years) to the simplest version, namely "valid if and only if the bar stays", for the sake of clarity, concerning both the athlete's emotions, and the public understanding of the performance.

Nevertheless from the height of his hips at 6.07, one can guess that he will have more occasion to jump around 6.10 in the future. He seems to have reach a whole new level this season, let's see what happens this summer if he manage to stay healthy !

"valid if and only if the bar stays" -- If the bar stays where? I know it is a "heartbreaker" of a rule. Had to make this same call on a young lady from Penn State - would have been her personal best and I believe it was the last meet of her senior year. Everyone is cheering and the announcer says something like "That is a good jump by Lindsay, but they are raising the red flag, I don't know why". Good point the announcers should always know the rules! As I said it is a difficult rule but if the bar does not say on its original pegs, it must be called. OK my .02

Dan

I don't get why so many people are upset about this. He hit the crossbar. The point of the game is to not hit the crossbar. He got very lucky that it looked like a make and that is what is disappointing. But he knocked it off the pegs so it is a miss.

Great jumps though. He's really jumping well. He's cleaned up his clearance a lot.

Agree that he looks ready for 6.10m.

there was an interview of his coach recently on

http://perchefrance.com

I will translate the relevants parts if interested.

I noticed Renaud has lost 2 kgs (67 now, 69 before).

palm1234 wrote:I noticed Renaud has lost 2 kgs (67 now, 69 before).

Oh good, he was looking kind of chunky there for awhile... (just kidding)

there was an interview of his coach recently on

http://perchefrance.com

I will translate the relevants parts if interested.

was naything said about his approach or run...

dj

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/wor ... 00969.html

‘Stupid rule’ denies pole vaulter amazing jump
By Eurosport | World of Sport – Mon, Mar 4, 2013 11:27 GMT


French pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie thought he had produced one of the greatest jumps in history at the European Indoor Championships in Gothenburg only to be denied by what he called a 'stupid rule.'

After already wrapping up the gold medal with an effort of 6.01m, the Olympic champion decided to go for a whopping 6.07m attempt which would have made him the second-highest jumper in the sport's history after Ukrainian legend Sergei Bubka.

Lavillenie cleared the bar and wheeled away in celebration only to then be left baffled when he saw an official raise the red flag for an invalid jump.

As you can see near the end of the video above, Lavillenie made enough contact with the bar for it to bounce out of its peg-holding position, and despite the bar not falling, that was enough for the officials to deem it an unsuccessful jump.

Lavillenie was clearly enraged with the decision as he kicked an advertising hording, argued with judges and then collapsed to the floor.

"This should have been an extraordinary day but I am left with an incomplete feeling. I know that I made it, I have seen the videos which show it. I am the second best performer of all time," said Lavillenie.

"These are stupid rules. I am not mincing my words, everyone knows it. We have so many obstacles in the way these days. We have reduced the time allowed to jump, we have reduced the length of our spikes.

"It's not the same as 20 years ago when Bubka was setting world records. I would have had no problems 20 years back when I could have gone even higher."

I have not seen those type standards where a ledge existed right above the peg. The bar may well have returned to the peg and stayed had the standards been different.

This is a rare occurence and unfortunate for the great vaulter.