{"id":1264,"date":"2017-02-09T08:23:40","date_gmt":"2017-02-09T08:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/eugene-rio-rematch-all-3-mens-medalists-at-pre-classic\/"},"modified":"2017-02-09T08:23:40","modified_gmt":"2017-02-09T08:23:40","slug":"eugene-rio-rematch-all-3-mens-medalists-at-pre-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/eugene-rio-rematch-all-3-mens-medalists-at-pre-classic\/","title":{"rendered":"Eugene: Rio Rematch – All 3 Men’s Medalists at Pre Classic"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Olympic podium rematch highlights a field with every medalist from not only Rio but also last year\u2019s World Indoor Championships and the 2015 World Championships.  In fact, the stellar field includes every one of the world\u2019s current top 8, as ranked by All-Athletics.com, the official data partner of the IAAF Diamond League.<\/p>\n

Renaud Lavillenie<\/b>, 30, is a unique talent.  Despite not winning a second Olympic gold, his 2016 season enhanced his reputation among the all-time great pole vaulters.  He competed in 21 meets and cleared 19-feet (5.79) in 17 of them.  He is the only athlete to have won his event’s overall title in each of the 7 years of the existence of the IAAF Diamond League.<\/p>\n

Lavillenie is a favorite of Eugene\u2019s knowledgeable fans, and the appreciation clearly has been mutual.  He soared to 19-10\u00bc (6.05) at the 2015 Pre Classic, the best ever seen in America and the best he\u2019s done anywhere outdoors.  Last year, Lavillenie donned a version of the hometown University of Oregon singlet as he won his 4th-straight Pre Classic, a feat only achieved by Oregon\u2019s Kory Tarppening (1988-91).  No one has ever won five Pre Classic vault titles.  He owns 8 of the Pre Classic\u2019s 19-foot (5.80) clearances \u2013 no one else has more than 3.<\/p>\n

Brazil\u2019s Thiago Braz<\/b>, 23, won the 2016 Olympic Games vault, becoming the first from his country to claim Olympic gold in this sport since 1984, when Joaquim Cruz \u2013 a former Oregon Duck \u2013 won the 800 in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.  Braz also became the youngest to win Olympic gold in this event since 21-year-old Maksim Tarasov in 1992.<\/p>\n

Braz’s most famous moment came last August, when a 19-9\u00bc (6.03) clearance brought the Olympic Stadium in Rio to deafening delirium as he sealed his gold.  The crowd rated as a huge advantage, even roaring when Lavillenie missed.  Braz\u2019s winning height of 19-9\u00bc (6.03) is the highest non-Lavillenie height seen since Australian Steve Hooker reached 19-10\u00bc (6.06) indoors in Boston in 2009. This will be Braz’s second appearance at Pre, having finished 7th in his debut back in ’14.<\/p>\n

Olympic Trials winner Sam Kendricks<\/b>, 24, earned the bronze at Rio, America\u2019s first Olympic medal in this event since 2004.  It also made him the youngest American Olympic medalist since Jan Johnson\u2019s bronze in 1972 at age 21.  He also earned the silver at last year\u2019s World Indoor, the youngest American medalist since Lawrence Johnson\u2019s silver in 1997 at age 22.<\/p>\n

Kendricks has won every U.S. outdoor and indoor in which he has competed \u2013 dating back to the 2014 outdoor crown.  Kendricks also could be Lavillenie\u2019s Kryptonite \u2013 he has two Diamond League wins over the Frenchman plus a tie at the final in last year\u2019s IAAF Diamond League season, the strongest challenge Lavillenie has seen in one year.<\/p>\n

Shawn Barber<\/b> is the youngest in the field at 22 and is the reigning World Championships gold medalist \u2013 he won in Beijing in 2015 at age 21, making him the youngest World Champion in the event since Sergey Bubka, who won the inaugural feature in 1983 at age 19.  He will turn 23 on May 27, the day set for the Pre Classic men\u2019s pole vault.<\/p>\n

Barber has a unique background.  Born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, he is a dual Canadian and American citizen who competes for Canada.  He graduated from Kingwood Park High near Houston, Texas, where as a senior he set a national high school record of 18-3\u00bd (5.57) in 2012.  His short-lived collegiate career saw him set four collegiate indoor records in 2015 for the University of Akron, sweeping the NCAA indoor and outdoor titles.<\/p>\n

Poland\u2019s Pawel Wojciechowski <\/b>and Piotr Lisek<\/b> shared bronze medals with Lavillenie at Beijing in the 2015 World Championships.  Wojciechowski, 27, won the 2011 World Championships in Daegu as a 22-year-old and the last two years enjoyed his best vaulting since the \u201911 season, when he was ranked No. 2 in the world by Track & Field News.  Lisek, 24, was ranked No. 3 in the world in 2015 by T&FN, but has started 2017 as the hottest vaulter on the planet, joining the elite 6-meter club with a victory at 19-8\u00bc (6.00) in Potsdam, Germany.<\/p>\n

Jan Kudlicka<\/b>, 28, is the national record holder from the Czech Republic and the only three-time Olympian in the field, with a 4th-place finish in Rio topping the 8th in London and 9th in Beijing.  He is also a 3-time finalist in the World Championships and earned bronze in the 2014 World Indoor.<\/p>\n

Konstantinos Filippidis<\/b> of Greece won the 2014 World Indoor title and last year became a two-time Olympian, joining Lavillenie.  The 30-year-old has ranked among T&FN\u2019s world\u2019s top 7 every year since 2011, led by a No. 2 in 2014.  To date, he has likely the most competitions (67) against and victories (13) over Lavillenie, whom he first battled in 2009.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Men\u2019s Pole Vault<\/b><\/td>\nPersonal Best<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Renaud Lavillenie (France)<\/td>\n6.16m<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Thiago Braz (Brazil)<\/td>\n6.03m<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Shawn Barber (Canada)<\/td>\n6.00m<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Piotr Lisek (Poland)<\/td>\n6.00m<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sam Kendricks<\/td>\n5.92m<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Konstantinos Filippidis (Greece)<\/td>\n5.91m<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pawel Wojciechowski (Poland)<\/td>\n5.91m<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Jan Kudlicka (Czech Republic)<\/td>\n5.83m<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

World record holder Renaud Lavillenie will return to the Prefontaine Classic for a 5th time, and...","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"city":[],"class_list":["post-1264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1264"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=1264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}