German tyro Raphael Holzdeppe rained on Renaud Lavillenie's pole vault parade at the World Athletics Championships on Monday by claiming a shock gold ahead of the favoured Frenchman.
Germany's Raphael Holzdeppe celebrates after winning the men's pole vault final at the 2013 IAAF World Championships at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow on August 12, 2013.
The 23-year-old German, a bronze medallist at last year's London Olympics where Lavillenie won gold, kept his nerve as Lavillenie had three attempts at 5.96 metres that would have ensured his continuation in the event.
With each failed bid, the crowd gasped, and on the third, Holzdeppe ripped off his singlet and headed to the crowd to search out his coach and family, the Frenchman left stricken on the mat.
Holzdeppe was credited with victory on 5.89m on countback from Lavillenie. Another German, Olympic silver medallist Bjorn Otto, took bronze (5.82m).
"Holzdeppe had a great competition, but I am not at my level. I wasn't far off at 5.96m," said Lavillenie, who has produced the best six marks in the world this season, topped by his recent national outdoor record of 6.02m set in London, his last competition before heading to the worlds.
"The title I had to win I got last year (in London) and no one will take that away from me."
The bronze medal for the 35-year-old Otto ensured him a place in the record books as the oldest pole vault medallist in the history of the worlds, surpassing Ukrainian legend Sergey Bubka, who took gold in 1997 at the age of 33.