Re: Men's Pole Vault - Only 11 clear a bar
Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2012 7:40 pm
My wrap-up and thoughts on yesterday's competition:
Yesterday was fairly miserable most of the day. Many were speculating that the men's prelims would be cancelled and they would go to a straight final like the women did.
But in the hours leading up to the pole vault, it wasn't _that_ bad. Raining off and on but never that hard. I think when the guys were first on the field and warmups were getting underway 90 minutes before the event, the sun even came out briefly.
That changed as warmups were winding down. It started raining harder. By the end of warmups, almost every jump was a run-through or a bail. One athlete told me how he worked hard to keep his pole dry, but he carries with an open top hand, and in the time it took him to get down the runway, that top grip was completely wet.
Should they have delayed the competition at that point?
The competition began. For the first round of jumps, it was raining, but not pouring. The wind was really not a factor for any of this, thank goodness, it was fairly still most of the time.
No one was making the bar. In the first round of jumps, there were 18 misses and one clearance at a rather pedestrian height of 5.30.
Around the time people started making their second attempts, the rain got worse. Really raining hard. Several athletes mentioned that they had trouble with water getting in their eyes as they ran down the runway.
Should they have delayed the competition at that point? The athletes were begging the officials for a delay, telling them how unsafe it was!
During second attempts we had 15 misses and 3 makes. During third attempts we had 11 misses and 3 makes. There were 19 vaulters with PRs of 5.51 or better, and only 7 could clear 5.30.
When the bar went to 5.40, the athletes who had cleared 5.30 wanted to know how many were still in, so they could figure out if they needed to jump or not. Once you pass, you can't take that back and jump at the height. It's hard for the athletes to keep track of what is happening on two pits, they need to focus on their own jumping.
The officials were initially unable to give them a definitive answer. Five athletes took attempts at 5.40 who didn't need to.
Fortunately for the athletes who passed 5.30, the weather improved a bit at 5.40, and 4/5 were able to make a bar.
The goal of prelims is to get a field of 12 athletes for finals. We only got 11 athletes over a bar. Worst. Competition. Ever.
I think they made the right decision to warmup and have the competition based on the weather at the time. It would not have been a bad idea to maybe delay the start for a bit, but it seemed kind of borderline (though I was in the covered stands so not fully able to judge the effect on the athletes). There was a loud clap of thunder around the time of the start of the competition, many thought it would surely be called off.
But once it started raining harder, they DEFINITELY should have delayed it. It doesn't usually rain that hard here. If you delay by 15-30 minutes, you will almost certainly see an improvement.
The conditions were unsafe. We are LUCKY that 5 out of the 6 A standard athletes advanced without injury. We're lucky none of the vaulters got hurt.
Why is it OK for the guys to vault in conditions that were considerably worse than what the women were facing when theirs was called off? Why did the women get to vote on the course of action and not the men?
Everyone left this competition with a bad taste in their mouth. No one wins here. Men's pole vault has been on the decline in the US, but this makes the problem look considerably worse than it actually is. When events get worse, they get less funding.
I know that our athletes need to be able to vault in the rain. I don't think they should have cancelled yesterday. But for the safety of the athletes, they should have delayed competition when the conditions became so unsafe.
Yesterday was fairly miserable most of the day. Many were speculating that the men's prelims would be cancelled and they would go to a straight final like the women did.
But in the hours leading up to the pole vault, it wasn't _that_ bad. Raining off and on but never that hard. I think when the guys were first on the field and warmups were getting underway 90 minutes before the event, the sun even came out briefly.
That changed as warmups were winding down. It started raining harder. By the end of warmups, almost every jump was a run-through or a bail. One athlete told me how he worked hard to keep his pole dry, but he carries with an open top hand, and in the time it took him to get down the runway, that top grip was completely wet.
Should they have delayed the competition at that point?
The competition began. For the first round of jumps, it was raining, but not pouring. The wind was really not a factor for any of this, thank goodness, it was fairly still most of the time.
No one was making the bar. In the first round of jumps, there were 18 misses and one clearance at a rather pedestrian height of 5.30.
Around the time people started making their second attempts, the rain got worse. Really raining hard. Several athletes mentioned that they had trouble with water getting in their eyes as they ran down the runway.
Should they have delayed the competition at that point? The athletes were begging the officials for a delay, telling them how unsafe it was!
During second attempts we had 15 misses and 3 makes. During third attempts we had 11 misses and 3 makes. There were 19 vaulters with PRs of 5.51 or better, and only 7 could clear 5.30.
When the bar went to 5.40, the athletes who had cleared 5.30 wanted to know how many were still in, so they could figure out if they needed to jump or not. Once you pass, you can't take that back and jump at the height. It's hard for the athletes to keep track of what is happening on two pits, they need to focus on their own jumping.
The officials were initially unable to give them a definitive answer. Five athletes took attempts at 5.40 who didn't need to.
Fortunately for the athletes who passed 5.30, the weather improved a bit at 5.40, and 4/5 were able to make a bar.
The goal of prelims is to get a field of 12 athletes for finals. We only got 11 athletes over a bar. Worst. Competition. Ever.
I think they made the right decision to warmup and have the competition based on the weather at the time. It would not have been a bad idea to maybe delay the start for a bit, but it seemed kind of borderline (though I was in the covered stands so not fully able to judge the effect on the athletes). There was a loud clap of thunder around the time of the start of the competition, many thought it would surely be called off.
But once it started raining harder, they DEFINITELY should have delayed it. It doesn't usually rain that hard here. If you delay by 15-30 minutes, you will almost certainly see an improvement.
The conditions were unsafe. We are LUCKY that 5 out of the 6 A standard athletes advanced without injury. We're lucky none of the vaulters got hurt.
Why is it OK for the guys to vault in conditions that were considerably worse than what the women were facing when theirs was called off? Why did the women get to vote on the course of action and not the men?
Everyone left this competition with a bad taste in their mouth. No one wins here. Men's pole vault has been on the decline in the US, but this makes the problem look considerably worse than it actually is. When events get worse, they get less funding.
I know that our athletes need to be able to vault in the rain. I don't think they should have cancelled yesterday. But for the safety of the athletes, they should have delayed competition when the conditions became so unsafe.