The young French vaulter Renaud Lavillenie, who wowed the Armory crowd a year ago, won the Meeting Areva competition in Paris on Friday, clearing the final three heights all alone before finally failing at a stratospheric 19-11.
Lavillenie, already the world leader this season at 19-5.75, took the lead when he sailed over 18-8.25. When the American Derek Miles went out at 18-10.75, and with the Olympic champion, Steven Hooker of Australia, a no-height, Lavillenie was alone. He cleared 18-10.75 and 19-0.75 on his first attempts and 19-4.75 on his second, then had the bar raised all the way to 19-11 (6.07). Only the legendary Sergei Bubka has ever gone that high.
Lavillenie, as a 22-year-old French college student, came to the Armory in the winter of 2009 and competed in the New Balance Collegiate Invitational. He won the pole vault by three heights, clearing 18-8.25 and breaking the meet record. Afterward he celebrated around the corner with his newfound American fans at Coogan’s Restaurant on Broadway.
“This season I’m being called the guy to beat is because I’ve won all my eight competitions so far,” Lavillenie said prior to Friday’s meet. “It’s OK for me, although it’s a new situation, but I like it. It gives me a strong motivation.”
Hooker said, “I’ve not been successful this season, but there’s nothing wrong with me. The problem is Renaud. He’s in such good form and, to be honest, he’s been very hard to beat.”
Plenty of other familiar Armory faces did well at the Diamond League meet Friday, all of their events leading up to the night’s culminating race, the men’s 100 meters. In that, Jamaica went 1-2-3, as Usain Bolt defeated his countrymen Asafa Powell and Yohan Blake, 9.84-9.91-9.95. It was a lifetime best for the youngster Blake. For Bolt, returning from an Achilles injury, he again defeated his rival Powell, who remains the last man to beat Bolt. He also managed to take down one of Powell’s best performances, his 9.85 meet record in Paris in 2006. Friday’s 100 had a 0.3 headwind. In fifth was the Frenchman Christophe LeMaitre, in 10.09. LeMaitre recently made headlines by becoming the first white sprinter to break 10.00.
In the women’s 5,000, American Molly Huddle (Elmira, NY), the Notre Dame grad, went under 15:00 for the first time her career, running 14:51.84, a 25-second PR, for eighth place. Lisa Koll, the recent NCAA champion for Iowa State, also went under 15:00 for the first time, 14:55.74 in 11th.
David Oliver broke the American record in the men’s high hurdles, running 12.89, just .02 from the world record, and .01 faster than the record-equaling time he ran last month. Two Armory veterans behind him were Ronnie Ash – finalist in the New Balance highs for both Oklahoma and Bethune-Cookman in his college career – and Jamaican Dwight Thomas. Ash was third in 13.21, Thomas fifth in 13.30. Thomas won the National Scholastic hurdles while attending high school in Maryland.
Christin Wurth-Thomas finished just behind Russian Anna Alminova in a fast women’s 1,500. Alminova ran a world-leading 3:57.65. Wurth-Thomas, who ran at the Armory for the University of Arkansas, was second in a lifetime-best 3:59.59. In sixth was Shannon Rowbury, a seasonal-best 4:01.30; Hilary Stelingwerff of Canada was 14th in a PR 4:06.99, and American Anna Pierce was 15th in 4:07. Rowbury ran at the Armory while at Duke, Stelingwerff – nee Edmondson – while at Wisconsin, and Pierce – nee Willard – while at Brown.
In the men’s 800, Andrew Wheating was well back in fifth place but with a lifetime best of 1:44.62, ahead of his better-known countryman, Nick Symmonds, who was seventh in 1:44.93. Wheating, double NCAA champion last month in the 8 and 15, won the New Balance mile on the Armory track for his Oregon Ducks in 2009. Abubaker Kaki of Sudan won Friday’s race in 1:43.50.
Allyson Felix, who said she is looking for PRs this summer in both the 200 and 400, ran away with the 200 in 22.14, far ahead of runnerup Shalonda Solomon (22.55). The Armory veterans in this elite field were Felix and Solomon along with Kelly-Ann Baptiste of Trinidad (fifth), Bianca Knight (sixth) and Porscha Lucas (seventh). Felix and Knight ran at the Armory while in high school, Baptiste for LSU, Solomon for South Carolina as well as in high school, and Lucas for Texas A&M.
Jeremy Wariner, coming back from an injury at the U.S. nationals, improved on his own world-leading time in the men’s 400, running 44.49, just ahead of the PR 44.63 for Jamaican Jermaine Gonzales. Jonathan Borlee of Belgium, who ran for Florida State for one season, was third in 44.77, breaking his own national record, and Michael Bingham of Great Britain was fourth in 45.53. Gonzales ran at the Armory his senior year in high school as part of a contingent of Jamaican students who competed in the 2003 National Scholastic, finishing second to Reggie Witherspoon’s then-national-record 46.11. Bingham ran at the Armory in recent years as a member of the Wake Forest college team. /JP/