PORTLAND -- It's the kind of show that meet organizers dreamed about for years building up to the IAAF World Indoor Championships at the Oregon Convention Center. 

 

With silver medalist Sam Kendrick seated among 100 high school pole vaulters on the track, French icon Renaud Lavillenie took three attempts at a new world record height of 20 feet,  2.75 inches (6.17m) on Thursday. 

 

Lavillenie, Olympic gold medalist and world record holder, showed the Portland crowd the difference between the lower heights that he soared over and the harrowing peak at the current limit of human performance. 

 

Lavillenie broke the meet record and finished with 19-9 (6.02m). 

 

On a second runway, Jenn Suhr and Sandi Morris earned gold and silver for the U.S. in the women's vault and Stanford grad Ekaterina Stefanidi took bronze for Greece. 

 

Suhr, who broke the world indoor record earlier this winter, cleared all four bars she attemped and won the competition when she made 16-0.75 (4.90m), a meet record. The bar was set up to world record height of 16-6.50 (5.04m) but after thinking it over, she declined to attempt it. 

 

"With U.S. qualifiers not long ago, I was feeling it in my calf which was tight," Suhr said. "I started this season healthy and wanted to end it healthy."

 

The stirring competition that Suhr had with Morris at the USATF Championships was not exceeded at Worlds. 

 

Morris said her technique was not on point and she was unable to match the 16-2.75 (4.95m) jump that she achieved in the same venue five days earlier. 

 

Lavillenie passed the first three heights and did not begin vaulting until the women's competition was concluded. Then after a make at 18-10.25 that he made look simple, Lavillenie passed two more heights. He won the gold medal with his second clearance, soaring over 19-4.50. 

 

Kendrick went out that height but secured the silver medal. Piotr Lisek edged out 2015 world champion Shawn Barber of Canada for bronze. 

 

Kendrick chatted with and later sat with the 100 or so boys who sat on the banked track after their afternoon at the Moda Center, vaulting on the floor where the Portland Trail Blazers play. 

 

As Lavillenie prepared to go for his own world record, Kendrick was right with the boys watching events unfold like a fan. 

 

Asked whether he thought Lavillenie could break the record, Kendrick said: "I think he' s the only one here who can right now."

 

Lavillenie pulled a new pole out of his bag and it stood him up on his first attempt with it. The acrobatic vaulter contorted as he fell to the mats with his first miss. 

 

The second attempt, spurred by the crowd's rhythmic clapping, revealed the level of difficulty that Lavillenie was attempting. His foot seemed to hang up on the bar and he dropped straight down toward the box. Luckily, he fell into the padding and not a hard surface.

 

"I saw the box in front of my eyes and was a little bit afraid," the champion said. "I was able to manage it safely. But pole vault (can be) very dangerous and intense."

 

In a room more accustomed to hosting events such as the Portland International Auto Show, Portlanders got to see their first glimpse of the world's best pushing against new boundaries.