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No medal for stacy..........
Feofanova, with only one miss in the entire comp, declined to take shots at new WR.


1 907 Feofanova Svetlana RUS 4.75
CR
2 423 Becker Annika GER 4.70
SB
3 913 Isinbayeva Yelena RUS 4.65

4 1123 Dragila Stacy USA 4.55

4 841 Pyrek Monika POL 4.55

6 425 Buschbaum Yvonne GER 4.50

7 842 Rogowska Anna POL 4.45
PB
8 900 Belyakova Yelena RUS 4.45

9 167 Gao Shuying CHN 4.35
SB
10 1156 Sauer Mary USA 4.35


550 Elisdottir Thorey Edda ISL NM

373 Poissonnier Marie FRA NM

It says Thorey no heighted, but on the makes and misses Gus had, it looked like she didn't even make any attempts?? Does anyone know what happened?

Thorey did not enter the competition until 4.35 and then missed all three attempts.

So that box didn't appear to hurt the women at all? and after seeing Isinbayeva's jumps she bends the pole a lot more then Feofonova.

vaultfan wrote:Thorey did not enter the competition until 4.35 and then missed all three attempts.

That's a really high opening height for her

Feofanova by far has the best takeoff of any elite woman in the world! You don't see any sinking, overbending, step problems - just constant pole speed and rising. Her swing isn't bad either, but she doesn't finish swinging and then gets away from the pole on top - great bar-awareness though! - still, jumping 15'7 capping 14' poles is pretty damn impressive!

Isinabayeva - overgripping, flat takeoff, overbending. When she can roll it over, she has enough grip to fall over high bars. Nowhere near as good a takeoff as Svetlana though. Lower her grip 4" and jump up and she'd probably jump 6" higher.

Stacy - ughhh, what happened? She looks out to me, reaching badly on her last 2 strides, taking off low and flat, sinking and overbending with more grip than she can effectively handle with that takeoff. Pole bent really low. Hope she can turn things around for Athens.

Becker didn't look bad, especially for a lefty! Leans back a little bit coming into the takeoff, hits her takeoff pretty strongly though, but falls away on top.

4.90 is definitely in the cards for Athens!

Maybe.........just maybe, it is a red hair thing. 1 and 2 were both red heads.....................or that could just be my bias as a fellow red haired vaulter.

So I was watching my tape of the few jumps they showed...and would someone PLEASE explain what Michael Smith means when he keeps saying "all these women are using a very simple technique." Is he smoking crack?? Or is there a secret "very simple technique" that has been hidden from me??? Just because you're a world-class decathlete doesn't mean you're an expert PV analyst.

zack wrote:So I was watching my tape of the few jumps they showed...and would someone PLEASE explain what Michael Smith means when he keeps saying "all these women are using a very simple technique." Is he smoking crack?? Or is there a secret "very simple technique" that has been hidden from me??? Just because you're a world-class decathlete doesn't mean you're an expert PV analyst.

just another shmuck to add to the list of commentators that pretend to, but don't know anything about the vault.

Notes on Feofanova:

She doesn't drop the pole to horizontal before initiating her plant.

She strikes her penultimate on her toe (plantarflexed).

She stabs her toe at the takeoff (plantarflexed).

These things contribute to her being very flat at the takeoff, something that short vaulters can get away with, but is still not desireable.

In my opinion, Anikka Becker has better takeoff mechanics.

Barto

Barto wrote:Notes on Feofanova:

She doesn't drop the pole to horizontal before initiating her plant.

She strikes her penultimate on her toe (plantarflexed).

She stabs her toe at the takeoff (plantarflexed).

These things contribute to her being very flat at the takeoff, something that short vaulters can get away with, but is still not desireable.

In my opinion, Anikka Becker has better takeoff mechanics.

Barto

I agree with her being too plantarflexed, and understand how that can lead to a flat takeoff, but don't see a flat takeoff. On the contrary, she looked like the only one in the competition that wasn't flat, wasn't sinking after takeoff like Dragila and Isinbayeva. She constantly kept rising and maintained good pole speed through the entire jump.

Becker's takeoff looked good despite leaning back on her last 2 strides and being under, but she jumps up well without sinking. She looked like she just had too much pole or grip on her last attempt at 4.75. She does look like a hamstring waiting to happen though coming down the runway, too much frontside mechanics, pulling instead of pushing. Feofanova is plantarflexing too much, but has better push/backside mechanics.

IM tellin ya..........its the red hair!!!