IAAF article talking about a decline in the men's vault

[NovaVault]

http://www.iaaf.org/news/Kind=2/newsId=23485.html

They talk about the new short pegs

[lonestar]

For anyone who complains about U.S. men's vaulting not holding up to the rest of the world, consider this: we are the only country on the IAAF World Rankings list to have more than 1 person in the top ten, as we have 3 in the top ten.

http://www.iaaf.org/worldrankings/index.html

Maybe overall, vaulting has declined on the world stage, but the U.S. is holding its own, despite the lack of medals at the WC's.

As for the women, well, the Russians are kicking everyone's a** with 4 out of the Top Ten, and 3 out of those 4 athletes were the Top 3 in the world. Germany has 2 in the Top Ten, and we have 2. Time to kick it up a notch!

[mowad1]

Seems like the IAAF is really trying to justify the shortening of the pegs by saying that pole vaulting was on a decline anyway. Ultimately, I think that the event is totally different now and should be recorded differently. Just like the scoring for decathlon has retired certain world records, the same should go for the old pole vault performances.
My point is that there have been numerous vaults in the past where the bar has been brushed, bumped or replaced, including major championship performances. I know that all of Bubka's jumps weren't flawless and even though he is the greatest ever (in my opionion), he would have been at a major disadvantage if he competed under the current circumstances.

[SkyHigh21]

If you watch Sergei's clearences over all of his world records, you'll notice that all of them were clean (he didn't even touch the bar). Sergei had enough confidence in himself that even today he would not complain about shorter pegs. Vaulters need to have more confidence in the way they jump and stop complaining about the rules. Enjoy the sport and then maybe, the decline will turn around and the 6.16m mark wont be the holy grail it is today.

[mowad1]

Bubka definitely wouldn't complain because he was the main guy pushing for the change.....after he retired. I know that he hated when guys started vaulzing, so do I, but I know that he hit bars. I think he barely made his opener in the 88' Olympics. I never saw all 35 of his WR jumps so cannot disagree with you there, but I have seen him hit bars. He sure didn't stop after every competition win, nor was he perfect for each jump leading to a world record. Sure he was not volzing but the size of the pegs and the crossbar shape do matter. If it didn't matter then they wouldn't have changed it. They should change the highest recorded vaults accordingly, girls and guys! It's a whole new ball game now!

[KYLE ELLIS]

Dont people want to see high bars? That would be like making softer tracks for sprinters, or higher hurdles for hurdlers heavier shots for throwers! We should be mad when they are critisizing jumpers today for not jumping as high! With all these stupid rules even volzing (you shouldn't be mad just because you cant do it) how is anyone supposed to jump higher, just like that bs rule they had a few years ago- 2misses and your out, hmmm i wonder why it didn't stay around long? because it was stupid! don't you want the sport to grow more popular?

[SkyHigh21]

You guys just don't get it. I don't care about all the other jumps Bubka took. Everyone Hits bars even the best. Im talking about the 6.00 and up jumps. They were huge clearences. And the stuff about voltzing or whatever, u never saw Bubka put his hands on a bar but for when he came down on it for safety reasons. He cleared bars, thats all that matters. When will someone stop complaining and start working towards clearing huge bars by large amounts (just like Sergei). I'll tell you why the vault is declining, because people arn't working as hard. Vitali Peterov told me that his new student Giuseppi Giblisco (yes, the world champion) trains very hard, but Sergei trained twice as hard as Giuseppi. I saw him (Giblisco) train in Formia, Italy this year and he works very hard, so that means Sergei was a machine. What does that tell you? SHUT UP AND WORK!

[bjvando]

amen!

[Carolina Extreme]

Yes, USA vault production line has been lacking somewhat, but demise... I don't think so. Look at all of the young vaulters jumping high. The US had "7", count them "7", high school vaulters over 17' this year. That is an incredible feat for any country. Nearly double the best year ever for USA, which was I believe "4". These "Junior" vaulters also had 7 of the top 12 to 14 vaults on the "World Junior List".

It will be interesting to see where this new crop of young vaulters are 5 to 10 years from now. It's quite possible there could be 2 or 3 really great american vaulters from this group.

[KYLE ELLIS]

Like Skipper, Walker, Shealy, Barrington, Most, and maybe even Kilmartin? And some of those who haven't matured athletically. I was watching the 96 trial tape and highschool studs Joe Dial, Duplantis, LoJo, Pursley, etc. were on, all these guys are gone now. We got gold and silver at the last olympics has everyone forgotten this?

[wacky274]

carolina, where did you get to compare them against the world junior list? i'd be really interested in seeing that if you could let me know where...thanks.

[Carolina Extreme]

carolina, where did you get to compare them against the world junior list? i'd be really interested in seeing that if you could let me know where...thanks.

There is a site which has all of the world lists. It's run out of Europe somewhere. You have to subscribe to it. I can't think of the name of it, but I had someone send me the World Junior list for this year. I'll see if I can dig it up and list the top vaulters for this year. I know Tommy was #2 in the world and Chase was tied for #11. They had Chase's height wrong though, he should have been #11 by himself. Tye, Chip, Gabe, Donavan were all there at their PR heights, and I think Brandon was on it too.