91�ȱ�

Olympic champion Renaud Lavillenie has broken Sergey Bubka's 21-year-old pole vault world record with a 6.16m leap in the Ukrainian's home city of Donetsk.

The Frenchman, 27, cleared the height on his first attempt to go one centimetre higher than the record Bubka set indoors in February 1993.

Former Olympic champion Bubka also held the world outdoor record of 6.14m, achieved in Italy in 1994.

Marks set indoors or out are accepted as world records in the pole vault.

Lavillenie wrote on "World record! 6.16 at my first attempt! That's incredible. I'm still in the air."

Bubka was a pioneer of the sport, becoming the first man to clear 6.00m, and was in Donetsk to witness Lavillenie eclipse his record.

The six-time outdoor world champion broke the men's pole vault world record 35 times during his career, 17 times outdoors and 18 indoors.

Bubka walked onto the track to congratulate Lavillenie and later said: "That's fantastic. It's history and I'm very happy that Renaud does it here, in Donetsk, my town.

"I'm happy because my job is to help athletes perform. Athletics is my life. I'm pleased for him and for athletics."

Lavillenie, whose best outdoors is 6.02m, described his achievement as "completely unbelivable".

He told French news channel BFM TV: "I will need time to get back down on earth. It was a mythical record. I knew I had the potential to try it but [to] beat it so early, that's something else.

"I did not know what was happening to me. The sound was crazy. These are huge emotions. I am in a new dimension."

Luke Cutts' fine start to the season continued as the British record holder cleared 5.81m to finish second in Ukraine.