Athletics-Kendricks wins pole vault, Lavillenie frustrated again

American Sam Kendricks capped his outstanding season by wining the pole vault at the World Championships on Tuesday as the title once again eluded world record holder and former Olympic champion Renaud Lavillenie.

Kendricks, unbeaten this year, cleared 5.95 while Poland's Piotr Lisek took the silver and Lavillenie, who has struggled for form recently, had to be content with the bronze despite producing his best leap of the season.

Lisen and Frenchman Lavillenie both cleared 5.89 but the Pole took silver on countback.

Titleholder Shawn Barber of Canada struggled all evening and failed to get past 5.65 metres while German Raphael Holzdeppe, who won the title four years ago in Moscow, was eliminated in the very first round at 5.50.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)