Brazil’s Da Silva stuns Lavillenie to win pole vault title

Rio de Janeiro (AFP) – Unheralded Brazilian Thiago Braz Da Silva sent the home crowd wild as he trumped France’s defending Olympic champion Renaud Lavillenie to win the men’s pole vault title.

In a thrilling competition in which Lavillenie was jeered every time he vaulted, Da Silva won gold with an Olympic record of 6.03 metres.

Lavillenie pitched everything on a last-gasp vault at 6.08m, but failed and had to be content with silver with a best of 5.98m.

American Sam Hendricks took bronze with 5.85.