The men’s pole vault competition in London was a dog fight. In the end, Renaud Lavillenie needed to use his experience to win the pole vault. Here is how they won…..Steve Hooker, the defending Olympic champion, just could not get started yesterday.He made three attempts at 5.65m, and while his first attempt looked close, Mr. Hookerseems to have his demons, we hope that he can overcome them. But for London, SteveHooker was out of the competition.
Brad Walker of the US, also no heighted. His third attempt looked like it was a clearance, but the bar dropped as he was over it. The competition was really between Bjorn Otto, Raphael Holzdeppe, and Renuad Lavillenie. The revelation of the competition was Raphael Holzdeppe, of Germany, who cleared 5.65m on his second jump. At 5.75m, he needed two attempts. Then, it got interesting, Raphael cleared 5.85m on his third attempt, which was a personal best. Bjorn Otto, also of Germany,was jumping quite well. Bjorn cleared 5.50m, 5.65 on his first attempts. Bjorn took two attempts to clear 5.75m and 5.85m. Renaud Lavillenie cleared 5.65m, 5.75m and 5.85m on his first attempts. He missed5.91m on his first attempt.
Then, the complexion of the event changed when Bjorn Otto and then, Raphael Holzdeppe cleared 5.91m on their first attempts. So, Renaud Lavillenie is one smart Frenchmen. He realized, that to win the pole vault, he needed to get to a height that Otto and Holzdeppe (who had scored a pb at 5.91m), passedon the final two attempts at 5.91 meters. He passed his last two and moved to 5.97 meters. On his second attempt, Renaud Lavillenie cleared 5.97 meters. Otto and Holzdeppe had missedat 5.97m twice. Otto then missed on his third, and then Holzdeppe missed. With those third misses, Bjorn Otto of Germany took the silver, and Raphael Holzdeppe tookthe bronze medal. All of France took a sigh of relief as Renuad Lavillenie took the gold medal! Renauld took an attempt at 6.02 meters, missed, and passed to 6.07 meters. He missed both jumps at 6.07 meters. Renaud Lavillenie was very happy afterwards. ” My coach had wanted me to go for the world record. I was not sure. It will come, it is all about progression.”
- Position Bib Athlete Country Mark .
- 1 1758 Renaud Lavillenie FRA 5.97 (OR)
- 2 1917 Björn Otto GER 5.91 .
- 3 1904 Raphael Holzdeppe GER 5.91 (PB)
- 4 2833 Dmitry Starodubtsev RUS 5.75 .
- 5 1817 Steven Lewis GBR 5.75 .
- 5 2817 Evgeniy Lukyanenko RUS 5.75 (SB)
- 7 1980 Konstadínos Filippídis GRE 5.65 .
- 8 1518 Jan Kudlicka CZE 5.65 .
- 9 1763 Romain Mesnil FRA 5.50 .
- 9 1915 Malte Mohr GER 5.50 .
- 11 2663 Lukasz Michalski POL 5.50 .
- 12 1611 Igor Bychkov ESP 5.50 . .
- 1046 Steven Hooker AUS NM . .
- 3259 Brad Walker USA NM .
- Athlete 5.50 5.65 5.75 5.85 5.91 5.97 6.02 6.07
- Renaud Lavillenie – O O O X- XO X- XX
- Björn Otto O O XO XO O XX- X
- Raphael Holzdeppe – XO XO XXO O XXX
- Dmitry Starodubtsev O XO O XXX
- Steven Lewis XO – XO XXX
- Evgeniy Lukyanenko XO – XO XXX
- Konstadínos Filippídis O XO XXX
- Jan Kudlicka O XXO XXX
- Romain Mesnil O XXX
- Malte Mohr O – XXX
- Lukasz Michalski XO XXX
- Igor Bychkov XXO XXX
- Steven Hooker – XXX
- Brad Walker – XXX
by: Larry Eder
from: http://mvrocket.com/2012/08/12/17542/#more-17542
