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Thiago gives Brazil an ‘Incredible gold’
Thiago da Silva won Brazil’s first athletics gold of their home Games on an extraordinary, unforgettable Monday night in Rio, producing an Olympic record of 6.03 meters in the pole vault to beat hot favorite Renaud Lavillenie and send the fans into raptures.
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A roar to match anything from Sunday’s 100 metres final — produced by a crowd a quarter of the size — accompanied the 22-year-old as he sailed over the bar, leaving the French world record holder and defending champion one more chance to beat him.
Lavillenie failed and Brazil had a new, and totally unexpected, hero and their first male athletics gold medal winner since Joaquim Cruz won the 800 meters in 1984.
“The gold — incredible,” said Da Silva, who came into the Games with a best of 5.93. “My first time over six meters. My home town wanted me to win.”
“The crowd were cheering me too much. I had to fix my mind on my technique, forget the people.”
There had already been drama aplenty on a night dogged by heavy rain that caused a brief suspension of action.
David Rudisha and Shaunae Miller showed that there are different ways to cross the line first, but their gold medals will be the same after thrilling 800 and 400 metres finals.
Kenya’s Rudisha, who won the 800m in world record style four years ago, delivered a dominant last lap, striding home majestically to become the first man since New Zealander Peter Snell in 1964 to successfully defend the 800m title.
Bahamian Miller, conversely, was tying up desperately but hurled herself across the line, crashing to the track in the process, to just get the nod ahead of American Allyson Felix.
There were also golds for Poland’s Anita Wlodarczyk, with a world record in the women’s hammer and 19-year-old Ruth Jebet of Bahrain via Kenya in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase.
The pole vault, so often the forgotten event of athletics as it chugs on relentlessly in the background with all the attention on the track, gradually became the prime focus when the crowd realized that the man in green kept clearing.
One by one Da Silva’s rivals dropped off but the odds were still stacked heavily in favor of Lavillenie, whose world record of 6.16m meant his final attempt at 6.08 was well within range, despite two failures at 6.03.
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