France's Renaud Lavillenie sets Olympic record to take pole vault title at London 2012

James Mariner

James Mariner is a journalist who has been boring The Independent sports desk with mindless statistics for over four years. Helping with various, wide-ranging desk duties and the endless researching of panels, James has an unnatural love of all things football, and in particular the Premier League. He cites Brian Sears among his heroes and can even find something interesting in Stoke v Blackburn Rovers. On a good day.

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Renaud Lavillenie of France won the pole vault gold medal with an Olympic record last night. The world indoor champion has been the dominant pole vaulter in 2012 and set a Games mark of 5.97 metres during the final.

Bjorn Otto earned silver on a countback from fellow German Raphael Holzdeppe after both cleared 5.91m. Holzdeppe had more missed attempts than Otto during the final. Lavillenie raised the bar to continue jumping after securing gold. Russia's Dmitry Starodubtsev ended outside the medals in fourth. Britain's Steve Lewis finished in a tie for fifth, his jump of 5.75 matched by Russia's Evgeniy Lukyanenko. Lavillenie's success was France's 9th gold of the Games.

Tatyana Lysenko of Russia set an Olympic record to claim the gold medal in the hammer. Lysenko, the former world-record holder who served a two-year doping ban until 2009, set the Games record with her first attempt of 77.56m and then improved it with her fifth at 78.18. Aksana Miankova set the old mark of 76.34 at Beijing.

Anita Wlodarczyk of Poland earned the silver at 77.60m with her last throw and China's Zhang Wenxiu took bronze at 76.34m. Miankova, the 2008 champion, finished sixth, while Briton Sophie Hitchon ended 12th and last.

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