Ottawa – The National Track League (NTL) is pleased to confirm today competition dates for the 2012 season. The series will begin June 10 in Vancouver, B.-C., with the Harry Jerome International Track Classic and will continue with stops in Victoria (June 13), Edmonton (June 16), Moncton (July 5), Halifax (July and conclude in Toronto on July 13. By overlapping the Olympic Track & Field Trials taking place in Calgary, Alta., June 26-30, NTL will provide athletes with three great Olympic standard opportunities in June, and then three opportunities to sharpen their performances after Trials.

NTL offers Canadian high performance athletes an opportunity to compete against elite international competition at home, while also providing breakthrough opportunities for young up and coming developing athletes. Phylicia George of Markham, Ont., is a great example of the platform NTL can provide. A relative unknown at the beginning of the 2011 season, George set a new personal of 12.76 at the Aileen Meagher International, went onto to win the NTL title in the 100-metre hurdles and finished seventh at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, South Korea.

read more http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/index.php/display-article?arId=63797

Sri Lanka –Ratnayake Central, Walala, athlete Ishara Sandaruwan established the first meet record at the All Island Schools Sports Festival’s Athletics Championships with a leap of four metres in the Under-19 Boys pole vault at the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Stadium at Diyagama yesterday.

The pole vault event was marred by administrative blunders and saw its conclusion in the morning yesterday after the final phase was postponed due to bad light in the evening on Friday.

Sandaruwan broke the record (3.87m) established by his namesake K. M. N. T. Sandaruwan of his own school in 2008.

Sandaruwan had already had the gold in his bag when he came for the final phase. On Friday, he cleared 3.85m, a height his rivals failed to clear. Yesterday, he cleared four metres which was lower than what he was targeting at. The athlete from Walala, who had commenced his junior career as a high jumper, was introduced to the discipline by Susantha Fernando, the mentor of many an athlete at the athletics stronghold of Walala

read more http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=35962

The Jim Day Memorial Pole Vault meeting was a massive success you might say with some quite amazing statistics from the days 117 competitors in the ‘pole vault only’ meeting. Alan Williams (meeting organizer) said: “the place was wall-to-wall with pole vaulters all having a great time, there was a supportive atmosphere which produced some very impressive performances. The final figures are simply stunning”.

And he wasn’t wrong when he said ‘stunning’. Out of the 117 competitors that took part:

•         96 Lifetime Bests were produced by 46 Athletes

•         Plus a further 2 Athletes had Seasons Bests.

•         In the first Competition Pool, 16 of the 17 Competitors set Lifetime Bests!

•         Several Athletes lifted themselves to the top of UK Age Group Rankings.

•         200 Pole Vaulters attended the event either as competitors, Coaches, Parents or Supporters.

UNDER 15 GIRLS

1st Place Clare Dyer Team Bath AC 3.43m PB
2nd Place Ailis McGovern Bexley AC 3.33m
3rd Place Jade Brewster Horsham Blue Star 3.33m PB

UNDER 15 BOYS

1st Place James Weller Dacorum & Tring AC 3.63m PB
2nd Place Charlie Maw Winchester AC 3.53m
3rd Place JJ Lister Harrow AC 3.43m PB

UNDER 17 GIRLS

1st Place Nancy Epsly Chelmsford AC 3.63m
2nd Place Emilie Blackwell Lewes AC 3.43m
3rd Place Holly Turner Brighton & Hove AC 3.13m

UNDER 17 BOYS

1st Place Jake Deveraux Bedford & County AC 4.23m
2nd Place Luke Hodgetts Southampton AC 3.83m
3rd Place Sam Bass-Cooper Southampton AC 3.73m PB

read more http://www.londonathletics.org/node/202

Bondarenko’s most famous student is Russian-born Svetlana Feofanova, who won a gold medal at the 2003 world championships and is also a former world record holder.

“The basic idea, from which everything began moving, was that we have a young talented pole vaulter in Estonia around whom we can create a professional training group,” Olympic medalist Erki Nool, one of the idea’s initiators, told Eesti Päevaleht.

According to Nool, negotiations with Bondareko started this summer and so far the situation.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D., Oct 06, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Today, Citi announced the launch of the Citi Team USA Flag Tour at its first stop in Sioux Falls, one of Citi’s largest sites in the United States. Two-time Olympian Derek Miles (track & field, pole vault) and 2008 Olympic silver medalist Chellsie Memmel (gymnastics) joined Citibank Site President Ken Stork, Citi employees, and students from the Laura B. Anderson Elementary School in celebration and support of Team USA and the athletes’ journeys to the London 2012 Olympic Games

read more http://www.marketwatch.com/story/citi-kicks-off-citi-team-usa-flag-tour-in-sioux-falls-to-celebrate-sponsorship-of-2012-us-olympic-paralympic-teams-2011-10-06?reflink=MW_news_stmp