A shocker as reigning world champion Shawnacy Barber eliminated early in pole vault final

RIO DE JANEIRO – The world champion was out of the Olympic Games before the defending Olympic champion even attempted his first jump.

And in the end, Canadian Shawnacy Barber’s shockingly premature exit on a night when the wind and the rain make it a challenge for everyone set the stage for a classic Olympic showdown and an upset of monumental proportions in the men’s pole vault.

Maybe it was even fated, somehow, as Barber walked off quietly and the final showdown between the sport’s longtime star Renaud Lavillenie and the 22-year-old Brazilian Thiago Braz da Silva became an unforgettable Olympic moment.

Da Silva, who finished 15th a year ago as Barber won the world championship title, is the new Olympic gold medalist.

They were still going at it when a serene-sounding Barber came through the mixed zone.

“It’s just one of those sports where you have to have everything lined up at the right time. And I tried a couple of things they didn’t pan out the way I wanted to, and that’s how it goes. Oh well,” he said. “You just try to adjust to the wind, the rain, and the different conditions. We’re all out there making guesses as to what’s going to work. Sometimes you take a risk doing one thing or another and it doesn’t work as well as you’d like.”

Barber, the second-youngest in the field of 12, cleared the original height of 5.50 metres on his second attempt but was one of five eliminated at 5.65 metres, obviously well below his abilities.

Lavillenie passed at both heights. He was still walking around the field, his suit partially unzipped, smiling and looking as relaxed as could be as Barber’s first Olympics ended in disappointment.

“It’s a struggle for all the athletes out there. We all had to endure a little more of an endurance sport,” he said. “It doesn’t usually take that long to get going and then, of course, we had a full warmup and then an hour-long delay before we actually got to jump again,” he said.

Barber had been expecting warm conditions. But the weather changed Monday after another crazy wind swept through Rio in the late afternoon and as the hurdles, women’s discus and the pole vault were to get under way, the rain went from light to torrential and the wind picked up again.

First the discus, then the hurdle heats were halted. The pole vault never even started.

“We expose ourselves to this so we’re able to be prepared for conditions like this. But that being like it is, especially on an Olympic stadium like this. – I’ve never been on an Olympic stage, so that’s a new experience, and you gotta absorb everything you can and learn as much as you can.”

Barber said that the conditions were especially tough on someone like him, since he chooses to only use chalk for grip while some of the other jumpers use a substance that practically glues the pole to their hand in these types of conditions.

When he finally checked in, Lavillenie clearing 5.75, 5.85, 5.93 and an Olympic-record 5.98 – all on the first attempt. After setting the new Games mark, Lavillenie was still strutting with the confidence of a veteran athlete who knew he had more in the tank if he needed it.

Meanwhile, da Silva, six months younger than Barber but with a resumé that wasn’t even on the same continent in terms of accomplishment with either the young Canadian or the 29-year-old Frenchman, had a few wobbles but stayed right with him. He passed at 5.98 even though he had never once made it at that height.

Both jumpers missed their first attempts at 6.03. Lavillenie caught the bar with his chest coming down on his second try. All of a sudden he wasn’t quite so serene.

Da Silva made it with room to spare on his second try and it all came down to Lavillenie’s last chance.

As the Brazilian crowd attempted to distract him, he began giving them the thumbs’ down. So confident just moments before, he was feeling it.

Lavillenie wasn’t even close. And that was that.

Da Silva is the new Olympic pole-vault champion, and he did it in his own country.

American Sam Hendricks, 23, earned the bronze medal.

Barber must look to Tokyo in 2020.