Tokyo Olympics: Lavillenie too diminished, Duplantis Olympic pole vault champion

The pain was too much for Renaud Lavillenie.

Decreased by an injury and affected following a fall in training, the tricolor pole vaulter failed to win a new Olympic medal on Tuesday at the Tokyo Games.

The 2012 Olympic champion and 2016 runner-up failed to clear 5.92m, finishing eighth in the competition. 

The Swede Armand Duplantis, world record holder, was crowned Olympic champion.

Duplantis, 21, the undisputed king of the pole vault for two seasons, is the only one to have crossed 6.02 m to beat the American Christopher Nilsen (5.97 m) and the Brazilian Thiago Braz, 2016 Olympic champion (5.92 m).

The Swede even came very close to breaking his own world record. 

Beaten only once in the last two seasons

Duplantis, born in the United States but who competes for Sweden, the country of his mother, became European champion in 2018 at 19, vice-world champion in 2019, then world record holder in 2020 with 6.17 then 6.18m in February 2020. He has only been beaten once in 29 contests over the past two seasons, including 19 completed over 6m.

The Swedish prodigy started the year on a high basis. He flew over the indoor season with four meetings over six meters and the best performance in the world (6.10 m), a bar again passed outdoors in June in Hengelo (Netherlands). In Tokyo, he showed great confidence in each of his jumps. After an entry at 5.55 m then a jump to 5.80, the Swede played with the nerves of his opponents by stopping at 5.87 m. Nilsen and Braz them, ensured the medal by crossing this bar, but then had to admit defeat in front of Duplantis, alone in the world from 6.02 m.