LANDOVER, Md. — Franklin County’s Coy Seneff captured the Northwest Region championship Wednesday in the boys’ pole vault with a career-best performance.

Seneff cleared the bar at 14 feet to win the title at the Prince George Sportsplex in Landover, Md.

Seneff, a junior, is the first boys’ pole vaulter to win the regional title. Former girls’ standout Erin Patterson captured three consecutive championships in the event during her career.

The state qualifying standard is 13 feet, 6 inches. Seneff met that mark in an invitational meet this past December, so he had a Group AAA berth secured prior to Wednesday’s competition.

 Seneff and Alexander Shotwell of Forest Park each cleared the bar at 13 feet in qualifying. Seneff cleared 14 feet in the finals, while Shotwell’s best was a second 13-foot effort. Continue reading →

BY DWAYNE DAVIS

Get on Up

Had a friend who pole vaulted in high school. He was not very good. Well, he was better than those of us who choose not to participate but against other semi-skilled pole vaulters he sucked.

He once made an attempt during competition and broke his pole. It was as painful and funny as it sounds.

Pole vaulting is one of those events that gets people aroused once every four years. Maybe.

Oral Roberts junior Jack Whitt hopes to change your opinion. The All-American recently captured his sixth career Indoor Track and Field Athlete of the Week honor and second consecutive after winning the pole vault title at the Herm Wilson Invitational with a nation-leading 18’1” vault. Continue reading →

When Holly Bleasdale, the young British athlete who has vaulted seemingly from nowhere into contention for an Olympic medal, needed a longer pole she knew who to call. Barrie Wells, a self-made multimillionaire from Bootle, is on a mission to invest some of that fortune in precious metal by funding some of Britain’s brightest hopes for the London and Rio Games.

Bleasdale, who recently recorded the fourth best vault of all time, used her new 4.6m poles for the first time at the recent UK indoor trials in Sheffield.

Talking to Wells about his Brewster’s Millions-style odyssey, which began after an epiphany just before the Beijing Olympics, it soon becomes clear that every story begets a new anecdote.

Via explaining his particular family affinity with pole vaulting – his grandfather, Latimer Stones, was world pole-vault record holder at 3.53m in 1889 – he says Continue reading →

Richmond, Virginia –Adam Tuck from Deep Run clears 13′ 9″ for first place in the Colonial District pole vault.

by Michael Gleeson

STEVE Hooker has won everything there is to win in pole vaulting. He has broken records, and won gold medals. Only one man has vaulted higher than him. When he is jumping he is comfortably the best pole vaulter in the world. But he is not vaulting and he does not know when he will. Right now the biggest jump Steve Hooker has to clear is the voice in his head telling him NO. Pull out. Don’t do it.

Every pole vaulter has been here. At some point, every pole vaulter has been struck by the mental paralysis stopping them jumping. It has hit Hooker – again – now, even after he has become one of the greatest athletes this country has produced and probably the greatest pole vaulter the world has seen, for Sergey Bubka’s record was achieved under different rules in a different sporting world. Continue reading →

By David Miller

ROXBURY TWP. — Kaitlyn Johnson earned the pole vault title, Kayla Anderson took second in the 800-meter run, while Angelo Adamo and the girls 4 X 400 relay squad placed third for the top finishes by the Roxbury High School track and field squads in the North Jersey 1 Group III Indoor Meet Saturday.

Second a year ago, Johnson reached 9 feet 6 inches to win the gold over Fair Lawn’s Anne Kavalerchik, who cleared 9-0, to account for 10 of the Gaels’ 28 points in a third-place finish behind Teaneck (78) and Mount Olive (66) at the Bennett Center in Toms River.

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Alberta, Canada –The sport of pole vaulting isn’t for the faint of heart, and that’s one aspect Leduc native Lindsey Bergevin loves about it.

The rush of running down the track and vaulting herself up and over the bar using her pole isn’t the only benefit of the sport for Bergevin. Pole vaulting is also giving the fifth year University of Alberta (U of A) student an opportunity to leave her mark not only on the sport, but also with the U of A.

Bergevin recently had a top finish in her height category of 3.9 metres at the National Pole Vault Summit in Reno, Nevada held Jan. 20-21. She finished first in the open women’s 2 category at the competition on Jan. 21. She competes with the Edmonton International Track Club. Continue reading →

Russian media is suggesting that Yelena Isinbayeva will get a buy to the World Champs. Jenn Suhr, the AR at 4.88m or 16 feet even, and highest jumper in 2012, is considering Istanbul, but first, she must finish in top ten in Albququerque next weekend! Suhr is trying to be careful not to overuse her achilles, which has been an issue most of her career.

ISINBAEVA WILL GET A BYE
MOSCOW (RUS): Russian media are informing that pole vault queen Yelena Isinbaeva will get a bye and must not compete at Russian Indoor Championships in order to qualify for Istanbul. That means only one place will be available at the national championships in the world championships team for Turkey. Also allowed to compete in Stockholm on February 23 during the national event are not only Isinabaeva but also high jump world champion Anna Chicherova and long jump world medalist Olga Kucherenko, they also will recieve a bye for Istanbul.

SUHR UNSURE ABOUT ISTANBUL
INDIANAPOLIS (USA): US pole vault record holder and world leader Jenn Suhr is still considering the World Indoor Championships (and of course she still needs to qualify). “I think it’s a decision that my husband and I will have to take into consideration. There will be a lot riding on that decision. We will make that decision when we have to,” she said during USATF media conference.

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Event-specific competitions were on the calendar on consecutive evenings this week in Prague, with the traditional Pole Vault meeting taking place on Wednesday followed by the High Jump on Thursday.

The 16th Winter Pole Vault meeting at the Strahov Training Hall saw Jan Kudlicka score an indoor personal best with a third-attempt 5.62m to win the men’s division. The Daegu finalist from the Czech Republic ended the evening with two respectable attempts at would-be Istanbul-qualifying 5.72m.

Maksym Mazuryk of Ukraine, the reigning European silver medallist, finished second with a season-best 5.50m. Tied for third at 5.35m were Germany’s Hendrik Gruber and Stanislau Tsivonchyk of Belarus. Tsivonchyk is the younger brother of Andrei, who won the Atlanta Olympic bronze medal for Germany after emigrating from his native Belarus. Continue reading →

The Eduard Grigoryan Memorial in Moscow on Wednesday night, the last of seven European Athletics Indoor Permit Meeting this winter, focussed on junior events.

A number of athletes were in action who will have medal ambitions at the World Junior Championships in Barcelona later this summer.

Pole vaulter Denis Berdnikov, still only 18, added 20 centimetres to his best when he went over 5.20m while 16 year-old Anna Chkhaidze improved her best in the women’s event to 4.10m and will still be young enough to compete in next year’s World Youth Championships.

Armenian long jumper Oganesyan Satenik, who turned just 17 two weeks ago, leapt to 6.13m in to equal her outdoor best from last summer while Russia’s Artyom Primak won the men’s triple jump with 15.86m.

There was also good sprinting from Yevgeniy Kharin, 18, who won the 60m in 6.82.

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