Yesterday at the World Indoor Championships, the automatic raising pole vault standards repeatedly malfunctioned, causing delays in the competition.
These standards malfunction at nearly every international championship, going back to at least the 1996 Olympics. I have attached photos of myself complaining about this repeatedly, going back many years.
These delays are difficult for the athletes because the vaulter who is “up” normally has no idea how long the delay will be, and has to maintain readiness because at any moment the issue will be fixed and then they will only have 60 seconds to take their attempt.
Yesterday, the French vaulter Margot Chevrier was delayed due to the standards malfunctioning. When she finally got to take her attempt, something was off and she bailed out.
When she landed on the front slant piece of the pit, her spikes somehow caught the edge of the cover and she broke her leg so badly that the bone was sticking out and blood got all over the box.
This caused further delays to the competition, as it took medical staff 20 minutes or so stabilize her and clean up the blood.
In the 30 or so years this equipment has been in use, World Athletics has complained repeatedly about the competitions taking too long. They have changed rules in ways to try and speed up the competition, for example giving the pole vaulters less time for each attempt, shortening the pegs, rounding the crossbar ends, etc.
But World Athletics continues to refuse to make a change to the faulty pole vaulting equipment that causes delays at almost every championship. This is not new technology that needs a few kinks worked out, if anything the rate of malfunction is increasing.
I am writing this post in hopes that anyone who is in a position to influence World Athletics will do so, and encourage them to stop using this type of pole vaulting standard.
I don’t understand how a technology can repeatedly fail for decades, causing one of the biggest problems we are trying to avoid in the sport (delays) and now it has contributed to an athlete being injured, without any changes being made to remedy the problem.
Thank you to everyone on the US side of the sport who has kept this faulty technology out of our domestic meets.
