(AP) — Olympic champion and world record-holder Renaud Lavillenie needed only two jumps on Saturday to his third straight pole vault gold medal at the European Championships, highlighting a day of threepeats.
It pushed his winning streak up to 20 competitions and established him as one of the stars of the championships.
The Frenchman cleared 5.80 on his first attempt for gold, celebrating with a backward flip, but scaled 5.90 for good measure afterward. In comparison, silver medalist Pavel Wojciechowski of Poland cleared 5.70.
Now he’s setting his sights on the only title he’s still missing at the world championships in Beijing next year.
“I want to have a big collection of gold medals,” the 28-year-old said.
Victory here was tougher than it looked. Lavillenie injured his heel in February in the same indoor competition where he set his world record of 6.16, requiring stiches and a long recovery process.”I could barely walk after my world record. Winning the gold medal is never anything normal,” he said.
