GOLD FOR BRAZ
HOME COUNTRY ATHLETE VAULTS TO GLORY AMID BOOS FOR LAVILLENIE
POLE VAULT
A CONTEST delayed by rain and technical problems eventually burst into life close to midnight in Rio when host-nation hope Thiago Braz beat world record-holder Renaud Lavillenie in a stadium buzzing with patriotic fervour.
Braz, 22, rose to the occasion, literally, as he soared to an Olympic record of 6.03m. Earlier, Lavillenie had also set an Olympic record of 5.98m in a dramatic finale to the competition that saw the Frenchman booed from the rafters by the partisan crowd.
Thiago Braz: jumped an Olympic record of 6.03m
Controversially, Lavillenie compared the behaviour of the spectators to Nazi Germany at the Berlin Olympics 80 years ago. “In 1936, the crowd was against Jesse Owens,” he said. “Better to stay at home in front of your television than come and whistle.”
But at a post-event press conference that began in the bowels of the stadium at 2.05am, a drained-looking Lavillenie retracted comments made in the heat of the moment. “I did a big mistake with that,” he sighed apologetically. “They were my first words. Of course it is impossible to compare Brazil to the Germany of that time. I am sorry about this big mistake of comparison.”
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