By Katelyn Hansen
Renaud Lavillenie, one of the fan favorites in the Prefontaine Classic pole vault, finished in fifth place at a height of 18 feet, 3 inches. Expectations were high for Lavillenie, but he struggled.
He passed on the opening height, but it was obvious from his first jump, starting at the second height of 18-3, that he was off. He did not clear his first jump until his third try.
“The wind was complicated today,” he said.
On his final try at the next height, 18-8 3/4 , Lavillenie ran up to the bar and did not take the jump. He stopped and slowly walked back up the runway, he knew there was not enough time for him to execute his final jump.
“Warm-up was not that bad,” he said. “The wind was sometimes good, sometimes bad when I’m turning. I knew from the warm-up I wasn’t able to make something very special.”
Lavillenie even discussed the problem of the wind with a few of his competitors, but he could not get it figured out in time to execute his jumps.
Lavillenie set the world record in the pole vault, 20-2 1/2, in 2014 and also jumped 19 feet 10 1/4 inches at teh Pre Classic in 2015. Lavillenie has not hit that mark again, and he said he wanted to get back to it.
“Depends on the conditions,” he said. “So I just hope to have good competition in the future, so I can improve and get back to that. Most people’s best performance is in the championships.”
