Greece's Emmanouil Karalis competes during the Athens Street Pole Vault contest in front of Zappeion Hall in Athens, Greece, on June 25, 2019. (Xinhua/Lefteris Partsalis)
ATHENS, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Polish athlete Piotr Lisek won the 7th annual Athens Street Pole Vault men's contest on Tuesday, clearing 5.84 meters to break the event's record.
The previous record was made by German Bjorn Otto in the first edition in 2013 with 5.83 meters.
"It was once again a great meeting and I am happy I broke the event's record. The crowd is always very supportive. We faced difficulties today, but I proved that I am getting close to my target for this year which is to reach the 6 meters," Lisek said.
Greece's Emmanouil Karalis and Konstantinos Filippidis ranked second and third clearing the bar at 5.71 meters and 5.61 meters respectively in front of Zappeion hall, one of the emblematic venues of the Greek capital which was constructed for the first modern Olympic Games of 1896.
Filippidis, the 2014 world champion, had won the 5th Athens Street Pole Vault event and Greece's Olympic champion Katerina Stephanidis was the winner of the 6th edition.
A total of 16 men athletes had registered for this year's event which belongs to the Special Premium Meetings of IAAF and each year attracts elite athletes.
Poland's Pawel Wojciechowski, the gold medalist of Glasgow's European Indoor championships this year, did not perform well in Athens on Tuesday. The high temperature and strong winds obstructed the efforts of many athletes including Ernest Obiena from Philippines who broke the Asian Athletics Championships record in Doha with 5.71 meters earlier this year.
Obiena ranked 10th in Athens on Tuesday behind Chinese Huang Bokai who ranked 7th clearing the bar at 5.35 meters.
Huang won the bronze medal in Doha this year.
The Athens Street Pole Vault event is organized by the Hellenic Athletics Federation in cooperation with the Athens Municipality.
