France's world and European pole vault champion Renaud Lavillenie took the gold medal on Friday with an Olympic record leap of 5.97 meters.
World silver medalist Bjorn Otto of Germany claimed the Olympic silver medal after clearing 5.91, but only at the second attempt.
Otto's European bronze medalist compatriot Raphael Holzdeppe matched that height but had to take bronze because of more fails earlier in the competition.
Lavillenie went on to fail two attempts at 6.07, which would have put him second behind the great Ukrainian Sergei Bubka on the all-time list.
