PARIS, FRANCE -- University of South Dakota graduate Derek Miles finished sixth in the pole vault at the World Track and Field Championships in Paris, France on Thursday.

Miles went 5.70 (18'8 1/4) to tie for sixth with American teammate Tim Mack and Denys Yurchenko of Ukraine. Gibilisco Giuseppe of Italy won the competition at 5.90 (19'4 1.4) to earn the Gold Medal. Brits Okkert of RSA went 5.85 (19'2 1/4) for the Silver Medal. Sweden's Patrik Kristiansson took the bronze, also at 5.85. He edged Austria's Dmitri Markov, who also went 5.85 and finished fourth. Tim Lobinger of Germany was fifth at 5.80 (19'0 1/4).

For Miles, this was the first time he competed in the Outdoor World Championships.

Miles is enjoying his best season on the professional track and field circuit. He is the 2003 USA Indoor championships and runner-up in June at the USA Outdoor Championships. He placed fifth at the 2003 World Indoor Track and Field Championships.

Miles won the pole vault competition at the Millrose Games in New York on Feb. 7, 2003, going 18'8.5 to unseat American record holder Jeff Hartwig as the champion in the event. That was the second major competition that Miles has won this winter. In January 2003, Miles won the Pole Vault Summit in Reno, Nev., for the second straight year. Miles went 5.80m (19-0 1/4) to win the meet on Jan. 20, 2003, defeating Hartwig and the 2001 World Indoor silver medallist Tye Harvey. Hartwig and Harvey both went 5.70m (18-11).

For the past year and half, Miles has trained in Jonesboro, Ark. at the Earl Bell Training Center, with Harvey and Hartwig, under the guidance of former world record holder Earl Bell.

On February 16, 2002, Miles recorded his personal best, going 19-1 1/4 (5.82m) at the John Dalton Memorial Track and Field Meet held at the DakotaDome on the campus of USD. The vault, which established a DakotaDome record, was the second-best indoor mark in the world at that point in the season. It broke Miles' own Dome mark of 18-4 1/2 set in 1999. Miles won the NCC pole vault title in 1996 and finished fifth at the 1996 NCAA Division II indoor meet. He was third at the 1994 NCAA Division II outdoor nationals. He was an alternate on the U.S Olympic Team in 2000.

He earned an undergraduate degree in history and a master's degree in athletic administration at USD. He is employed as an academic adviser at Arkansas State University.