Donetsk: Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie broke Sergei Bubka's 21-year-old indoor pole vault world record on Saturday at the same Donetsk meeting where the Ukrainian great set the old mark in 1993.


A combination of file pictures shows Renaud Lavillenie (left) competing in the the French C'ships in 2009 and Sergei Bubka (right) competing to win the Olympic final on September 28, 1988 in Seoul. Pic/AFP 

Lavillenie, the Olympic champion, vaulted 6.16 metres at his first attempt to improve the record by one centimetre and to make the moment sweeter Bubka was present to witness it and was among the first to congratulate him.