2015 World Championships in Athletics – Men's pole vault

World record holder and world leader Renaud Lavillenie set his opening height at 5.80, after most of the field had already attempted two heights. He cleared it with one foot to spare on his first attempt. It is believed to be the highest opening height ever attempted. At the end of that round, only six jumpers remained and three others, Shawnacy Barber, Piotr Lisek and 2011 winner Paweł Wojciechowski also had no misses. Returning champion Raphael Holzdeppe also was one of the six to clear 5.80, including several misses.

At the next height, 5.90, Lavillenie cleared the bar easily, but in the wrong position. Each time he knocked it off on his way down. Barber, the National High School Record holder and NCAA Champion from the University of Akron, cleared on his first attempt. On his last attempt Holzdeppe cleared 5.90 to stay in the competition, leaving a three-way tie for the bronze medal between Wojciechowski, Lisek, and Lavillenie.[3]

Barber and Holzdeppe competed for the gold medal at a height of 6.00; both athletes failed to clear it on all three attempts, neither really getting off a serious attempt. Barber's initial success at 5.90 in the previous round gave him the gold medal over Holzdeppe.[4]

Prior to the competition, the records were as follows:[5]

World record	Renaud Lavillenie (FRA)	6.16	Donetsk, Ukraine	15 February 2014
Championship record	Dmitri Markov (AUS)	6.05	Edmonton, Canada	9 August 2001
World Leading	Renaud Lavillenie (FRA)	6.05	Eugene, OR, United States	30 May 2015
African record	Okkert Brits (RSA)	6.03	Cologne, Germany	18 August 1995
Asian record	Grigoriy Yegorov (KAZ)	5.90	Stuttgart, Germany	19 August 1993
North, Central American and Caribbean record	Brad Walker (USA)	6.04	Eugene, OR, United States	8 June 2008
South American record	Thiago Braz da Silva (BRA)	5.92	Baku, Azerbaijan	24 June 2014
European record	Renaud Lavillenie (FRA)	6.16	Donetsk, Ukraine	15 February 2014
Oceanian record	Dmitri Markov (AUS)	6.05	Edmonton, Canada	9 August 2001

All times are local times (UTC+8)