7th September 2013 00:55
It's a height that nobody in the world other than himself has cleared this year and he dominated the competition to break the Van Damme Memorial meeting record that had stood since 1994.
Lavillenie had first-time clearances with his five vaults from 5.50m to 5.86m, the latter clearance winning the competition, and taking the Diamond Race with its $40,000 first prize.
He then moved the bar straight up to 5.96m and got over it on his second attempt before with three unsuccessful tilts a national record of 6.04m.
'The important thing, rather than pure performance, was to win and consequently take the Diamond Race, which were both achieved. After that, I must recognize that this was an excellent competition. I really jumped well tonight. Beating the meeting record, I have to admit, I did not think too much of this during the evening but now I've got a lot of pride, especially when I think of the names of the jumpers who competed on this stage,' reflected a happy Lavillenie.
Greek record holder Konstantinos Filippidis was a distant second with 5.74m.
An all-Russian battle for the high jump victory saw Svetlana Shkolina come out on top and maintain her unbeaten record this season when she went over 2.00m.
Into the bargain, the 2013 world champion took the Diamond Race.
Anna Chicherova and Shkolina both went over 1.98m with their first attempts but the latter was in first place due to the London 2012 Olympic Games champion having more failures earlier in the competition and when Shkolina went over 2.00m her compatriot had no answer.
Sweden's Abeba Aregawi win in this year's 1500m Diamond race was already secure prior to Brussels, assuming that she stood on the start line, she also maintaining her unbeaten streak in her specialist event with a comfortable win in 4:05.41.
Croatia's Sandra Perkovic bounced back from her first defeat of the year, in her home town of Zagreb on Tuesday, to become only the second women this year to win all seven of the competitions in this year's Diamond League.
The Olympic and World champion sent her discus out to 67.04m in the opening round and was never headed. She didn't improve but two other throws over 65 metres which would have won the competition.
'To win this Diamond Race means a lot to me. I've won all those Diamond Competitions this year, so you can say I was- almost - unbeatable. There's still one competition to go this year: Rieti. Next year you will see me at the Europeans in Zurich, that's my big target for 2014,' said the 2010 European Rising Star of the Year and a nominee for this year's European Athlete of the Year.
Teddy Tamgho stood alongside Perkovic three years ago at the European Athletics Awards Night in Belgrade as he also received his trophy as Europe's most promising athlete.
He had his first triple jump competition since his spectacular win at the World Championships and although couldn't recapture his 18-metre form but was still an easy winner of a surprisingly modest competition.
Tamgho was took the lead when he became the only man in the competition to go over 17 metres with his 17.27m effort in the fifth round and went further with 17.30m with his final jump.