If the sport wondered how Renaud Lavillenie would react in the year after missing out on World Championship gold, the emphatic answer arrived on Saturday night in Rouen on an amazing evening of pole vaulting.

Frenchman Lavillenie, the Olympic and multiple European champion, took his career to a new height as he broke the national record with a brilliant clearance of 6.04m.

And he was not alone in rewriting national records because in second, Luke Cutts went over at 5.83m to smash the British indoor mark.

But then, as the atmosphere at this French Elite Tour meeting grew even louder, Lavillenie decided to try to break the near 21-year-old world indoor record of 6.15m by raising the bar to a breathtaking 6.16m.

It was not to be as he failed on his three attempts but his performance was enough to earn praise from Ukrainian legend Sergey Bubka, whose record he was trying to overtake.

Bubka tweeted: "Renaud big congratulations! Happy for your improvement."

In Moscow last summer, Lavillenie had been chasing the one gold medal to elude him in his career but he was beaten into second on countback by Germany's Raphael Holzdeppe as both men finished on 5.89m.

But Lavillenie showed the extent of his winter training as he cleared 6.04m on his first go to the excitement of his home crowd, to beat the record height of 6.03m that he had set in 2011.

Bubka's 6.15m came in Donetsk on February 21, 1993, and on this sort of form Lavillenie will want to try for it again.

He confirmed his place as third on the all-time indoor list - he was there already with his 6.03m - with Australian Steven Hooker second with his 6.06m from 2009.

But one other landmark that the Frenchman achieved was that no athlete had ever vaulted this high in January.

He began with a first-time clearance at 5.67m before needing two at 5.83m and then one at 5.93m ahead of his best ever indoors.

The British indoor record of 5.81m had been set by Nick Buckfield in 2002 but after breaking his own personal best of 5.71m with 5.75m, Cutts cleared 5.83m.

It was, without doubt, a night to remember and let's hope the first of many this winter for European athletes.