European Athletics – News – Lavillenie tops off a great night for European athletes in Brussels

There were no less than seven European victories at the IAAF Diamond League final in Brussels but arguably the pick of the crop was Renaud Lavillenie's pole vault with a height of 5.96m on Friday.

It's a height that nobody in the world other than himself has cleared this year and he dominated the competition to break the Van Damme Memorial meeting record that had stood since 1994.

Lavillenie had first-time clearances with his five vaults from 5.50m to 5.86m, the latter clearance winning the competition, and taking the Diamond Race with its $40,000 first prize.

He then moved the bar straight up to 5.96m and got over it on his second attempt before with three unsuccessful tilts a national record of 6.04m.

"The important thing, rather than pure performance, was to win and consequently take the Diamond Race, which were both achieved. After that, I must recognize that this was an excellent competition. I really jumped well tonight. Beating the meeting record, I have to admit, I did not think too much of this during the evening but now I've got a lot of pride, especially when I think of the names of the jumpers who competed on this stage," reflected a happy Lavillenie.

Greek record holder Konstantinos Filippidis was a distant second with 5.74m.

An all-Russian battle for the high jump victory saw Svetlana Shkolina come out on top and maintain her unbeaten record this season when she went over 2.00m.

Into the bargain, the 2013 world champion took the Diamond Race.

Anna Chicherova and Shkolina both went over 1.98m with their first attempts but the latter was in first place due to the London 2012 Olympic Games champion having more failures earlier in the competition and when Shkolina went over 2.00m her compatriot had no answer.

Sweden's Abeba Aregawi win in this year's 1500m Diamond race was already secure prior to Brussels, assuming that she stood on the start line, she also maintaining her unbeaten streak in her specialist event with a comfortable win in 4:05.41.

Croatia's Sandra Perkovic bounced back from her first defeat of the year, in her home town of Zagreb on Tuesday, to become only the second women this year to win all seven of the competitions in this year's Diamond League.

The Olympic and World champion sent her discus out to 67.04m in the opening round and was never headed. She didn't improve but two other throws over 65 metres which would have won the competition.

"To win this Diamond Race means a lot to me. I've won all those Diamond Competitions this year, so you can say I was- almost – unbeatable. There's still one competition to go this year: Rieti. Next year you will see me at the Europeans in Zurich, that's my big target for 2014," said the 2010 European Rising Star of the Year and a nominee for this year's European Athlete of the Year.

Teddy Tamgho stood alongside Perkovic three years ago at the European Athletics Awards Night in Belgrade as he also received his trophy as Europe's most promising athlete.

He had his first triple jump competition since his spectacular win at the World Championships and although couldn't recapture his 18-metre form but was still an easy winner of a surprisingly modest competition.

Tamgho was took the lead when he became the only man in the competition to go over 17 metres with his 17.27m effort in the fifth round and went further with 17.30m with his final jump.

World champion Vitezslav Vesely was beaten by the Moscow silver medallist Tero Pitkamaki in a high quality javelin, 87.32m to 86.67m on the night, but the Czech thrower's second place was still enough to guarantee him the Diamond Race victory over his Finnish rival.

The last European victory of the night fell to British 400m runner Martyn Rooney, who has had a season disrupted by injury, but ran a season's best of 45.05 to break local hearts.

Both he and Europe's fastest man Jonathan Borlée were given the same time but the former got the verdict to deny the Belgian a memorable victory in front of his home crowd.

"I'm really happy to win here. I've been ill for a week-and-a-half but to finish with a season's best, I'm happy with that. It's a bit late but gives me something to build on," said Rooney.

Further down the fields in a few events, there were some also some outstanding European performances.
Poland's 2010 European 800m champion Marcin Lewandowski was just 0.04 off his best, set last week in Zurich, when he came home in 1:43.83 for fourth place in possibly the best race over two laps of the track this year.

It is a time only he and France's Pierre-Ambroise Bosse have beaten this year among European runners
France's Cindy Billaud clocked 12.69 in the 100m hurdles for third place, and again it's a time only she and one other European, Great Britain's Tiffany Porter who was one place behind Billaud in the French capital, have beaten this year.

Bulgaria's former World junior champion Georgi Ivanov finished second in the men's shot put, behind the USA's dominant winner Ryan Whiting, with 20.95m.

Russia's Antonina Krivoshapka finished a close third in the 400m in 50.51, a race won by USA's Natasha Hastings in 50.36, with Great Britain's world champion Christine Ohuruogu finishing a tired fifth.

 

European Athletics – News