Lavillenie defies injury to win Eugene vault
AFP
AFP, EUGENE (USA): Frances Renaud Lavillenie defied injury to make an impressive 2015 Diamond League debut on Saturday, soaring 6.05m to a pole vault victory in Eugene.
While Lavillenie couldnt match his world record 6.16 set indoors in Donetsk last year, the highest outdoor vault of his career matched the second-highest ever achieved outdoors and was all the more impressive as he still feels the shoulder strain that kept him out of the first Diamond League meeting of the year in Doha on May 15.
It had him feeling bullish on his chances to clear 6.16 in a season that will be highlighted by the World Championships in Beijing
in August.
I still feel a little pain. I have to work on it, he said. To be able to jump 6.05 with three weeks without normal training, thats why I can be very confident for the next competition and the championships.
Lavillenies victory was among world-leading performances in 10 events at Hayward Field on the third stop of the 14-meeting Diamond League series.
US sprinter Justin Gatlin continued to build his solid start to the season, winning the 200m in a world-leading 19.68sec.
That performance comes after he posted the years top 100m time of 9.74 at Doha.
The 33-year-old Gatlin, who has served two doping bans, said it was perfect preparation for the US world championship trials on the same Eugene track in June.
