Lavillenie falls short in Euro warm-up

French pole vault star Renaud Lavillenie only came close to a season's best on Wednesday evening, stopping at 5.92 metres a week ahead of the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague.
"I was of course expecting higher," the 28-year-old told AFP after a meeting in Malmo, Sweden.
The Frenchman -- who jumped 6.16 metres to break Ukranian Sergey Bubka's entrenched world record a year ago -- cleared the bar but clipped it on his way down attempting a new season's best at 6.03.
"I was more than ten centimetres higher," he said.
"When I was jumping at 6 metres everything was really fast so it wasn't easy for me to have a good rest and prepare for the next jump," he added.
The Olympic champion was left competing with himself after third place Ilya Mudrov of Russia exited where the Frenchman had entered -- at 5.78 metres -- and Pole Piotr Lisek dropped off at 5.85 to claim second place on the night.
Elsewhere, Qatari high jumper Mutaz Barshim reached 2.34 metres before failing three attempts at 2.38, shy of the 2.41 he cleared in Ireland a week ago.
Andriy Protsenko of Ukraine and Bahamian Donald Thomas claimed second and third place, respectively, at 2.26.
Ivan Ukhov finished at a disappointing 2.21 metres as the Russian failed to find his form with the Prague championships only a week away.
Serbian Ivana Spanovic set a personal best to win the women's long jump, leaping 6.99 metres ahead of Canada's Christabel Nettey and Eloyse Lesueur of France.
Sprinter Kim Collins, who turns 39 in April, of Saint Kitts and Nevis was in control of the men's 60-metre sprint and finished first at 6.52 seconds despite having to slow down in the final ten metres due to an apparent injury.
The Malmo meeting was the last ahead of the European championships in Prague, where Lavillenie is expected to target his own world record.
"I feel good. I am still in good shape and I am ready for my major goal for the season," Lavillenie said after the event.
"So I just have to wait, have some good training in the next few days and I will be ready for that."
Source: AFP