Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie breaks Sergey Bubka's 21-year old pole-vaulting record

French pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie has broken one of the oldest standing world records in the sport held by former Ukrainian Olympic great Sergey Bubka with a 6.16m leap in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk.

The French Olympic champion cleared the height on his first attempt to go one centimetre higher than the record Bubka set indoors 21 years ago in February 1993 and also cleared the world outdoor record of 6.14m achieved again by Bubka in Italy in 1994.

According to the BBC, six-time outdoor world champion Bubka was a pioneer of the sport, becoming the first man to clear 6.00m and he broke the men's pole vault world record 35 times during his career, 17 times outdoors and 18 indoors.

Bubka was in Donetsk to witness Lavillenie eclipse his record and congratulating the Frenchman, he said that he is happy for Lavillenie as it is his job to help athletes perform.

Lavillenie, whose best outdoors is 6.02m, described his achievement as 'completely unbelievable'.