After nearly two hours of competition in the men’s pole vault qualification at the 2012 Summer Olympics, the athletes had had enough. They started a discussion, first among themselves and then with the officials, that led to what the Twitterverse is calling the #PoleVaultersMutiny. Led by 2008 gold medalist Steven Hooker of Australia, the negotiations concentrated on how many participants would be allowed into the final. Only 12 competitors were scheduled to be in contention for a medal on Friday, but some of them felt it was taking too long to find those 12.“I didn’t really want to jump any more if I didn’t have to, and I think everyone agreed with me,” Hooker told The Sydney Morning Herald.At the start of qualifying, there were 32 competitors. By noon in London, two hours after the competition began, half of them had been eliminated. A committee of athletes began lobbying officials to allow all the remaining athletes into the final because Continue reading
Daily Archives: August 9, 2012
Scott Roth’s Dad is a great vault coach
Loomis, California –Olympics The south Placer County area looks to be living up to its reputation as a hot bed for pole vault competition after two area athletes did very well at the recent AAU Jr. Olympic Nationals, in Baltimore, Md.A few years back, former Granite Bay High standout Scott Roth captured a pair of CIF state pole vault titles before going on to win NCAA titles at Washington, which in turn led him to become an elite world class competitor. Recently, Scott Roth took third in the U.S. Olympic Trials.Now, two products of his father, Curt Roth’s, pole vault training program – Travis Kartz and Lance Huber – are showing signs they may be stars of the future.Competing in the boys 13-14 age group, Kartz cleared a personal best 12-6 to win the gold medal; while Huber cleared three personal bests on his way to clearing 12 feet to win the silver.Kartz, who will be a freshman at Granite Bay High, eclipsed his previous 12-3 best on his way to garnering first place. He cited hard work and far travels as they all paid off under some tremendous pressure in a big stage venue, which hosted over 8,000 USATF athletes and approx. 50,000 read more http://theloomisnews.com/detail/214850.html
Eaton first,Hardee in 2nd place after first day of decathlon
LONDON – Former Texas Longhorn Trey Hardee put himself in position for his first Olympic medal with a strong opening day in the decathlon.
Hardee, a two-time world champion in the event, is in second place with 4,441 points after posting a pair of solid times on the track.
Hardee, who trails fellow American Ashton Eaton (4,661), posted the second-fastest time in the 100 meters (10.42) and the third-best effort in the 400 (48.11).
Eaton was the top finisher in three of the five events – the 100, long jump and 400. He set the Olympic decathlon record in the 100 with a time of 10.35.
Hardee, competing in his second Olympics, went 7.53m (24.8.50) in the long jump to tie for seventh and tossed the shot put 15.28 (50-1.75), which was the fifth-best mark of the day. He cleared 1.99 (6-6.25) in the high jump, which was tied for the 10th-best mark of the competition.
Warner Damian of Canada is third (4,386) and Oleksiy Kasyanov of the Ukraine is fourth (4,346).
The final day of competition begins with the 110-meter hurdles at 3 a.m. (CDT) Thursday. The remaining four events will be discus, pole vault, javelin and 1500. Click here for the results of the day of the decathlon.
Hardee was in third place (4,428) after the first day of the decathlon at the 2008 Olympics, but did not clear a bar in the pole vault and withdrew.
He posted 8,383 points at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials, finishing second behind Eaton who set the world record (9,039). read more http://austin.ynn.com/content/top_stories/286207/trey-hardee-in-2nd-place-after-first-day-of-decathlon
Second Law of Thermodynamics with Jenn Suhr’s vault
by John Eric Goff
,,,Did you watch Jennifer Suhr of the US win the women’s pole vault event this past Monday? Her gold-medal-winning vault took her 4.75 m (15.6 feet) over the bar. Her mass is 64 kg (corresponding to a weight of 141 pounds) and at 1.83 m (6′ 0″) tall, her center of mass had to raise about 3.75 m (12.3 feet) to clear the bar. Her gravitational potential energy increase was about 2.35 kJ, but she also needed some kinetic energy to keep moving horizontally over the ball. That might have accounted for another 5% – 10% more energy. Where did all that energy come from?
First, Suhr needed to converted stored chemical energy in her body to kinetic energy as she ran faster and faster leading up to her vault. She lost a little energy along the way to air resistance and track friction. When she planted her pole on ground and it began to bend, while at the same time elevating her upward, energy was transferred into potential energy in the pole, much like a compressing spring, and gravitational potential energy. As the pole began to straighten out, like a spring uncoiling, potential energy in the pole got transferred into more gravitational potential energy as she continued to move upwards. Continue reading
Nebraska native fails to qualify for pole vault final
NORFOLK, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska native Jeremy Scott failed to qualify for the Olympic finals in the pole vault competition.Scott, who grew up in Norfolk, Neb., cleared the qualifying height of 5.5 meters Wednesday in London. But Scott didn’t advance because it took him two attempts and he failed to clear 5.6 meters.The 31-year-old Scott was competing in his first Olympics.He was the runner-up at the last two U.S. outdoor championships and won the indoor competition in 2003. He also won the indoor and outdoor title in NCAA Division III while he was a student at Allegheny College.Scott trains with Bell Athletics in Jonesboro, Ark
read more http://www.omaha.com/article/20120808/SPORTS/708089850
Walker yes, Miles and Scott no
Aberdeen-born Brad Walker advanced to the Olympic pole vault finals at 1 p.m. (CT) Friday in London from among the three-member Team USA delegation.Early Wednesday morning in the pole vault qualifying round, University of South Dakota assistant track and field coach Derek Miles failed to advance. The 39-year-old Miles was unable to clear the opening height of 17.06 feet on three tries. The 2012 Olympics are the third for Miles, who was fourth in the pole vault in Beijing and seventh in Athens.Nebraskan Jeremy Scott also failed to qualify even after he cleared 18.04 feet, the cutoff point to make the finals. Scott, who had sisters run track at USD, had too many misses in previous rounds to qualify for the finals.
Brad Walker, who lived in Aberdeen until age 2 and whose parents still have friends here, cleared 18.37 feet. That was tied for the fourth best mark going into the finals.
The top qualifiers were France’s Renaud Lavillenie and Germany’s Raphael Holzdeppe at 18.54 feet.The next six qualifiers for the final cleared 18.37 feet with Greece’s Konstadinos Filippidis based on less misses. Walker and Evgeniy Lukyanenko of Russia are tied for fourth with Romain Mesnil (France) sixth, Dmitry Starodubtsev (Russia) seventh and Lukasz Michalski eighth.Tied for ninth at 18.04 feet are Igor Bychkov (Spain), defending Olympic champion Steven Hooker (Australia), Jan Kudlicka (Czech Republic), Steven Lewis (Britain), Malte Mohr (Germany) and Bjoern Otto (Germany). read more http://aberdeensports.net/inthehuddle/2012/08/08/aberdeen-born-pole-vaulter-makes-finals-miles-does-not/
Miles Falls Short
LONDON – Three-time Olympian and South Dakota assistant coach Derek Miles concluded pole vault competition at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London on Wednesday. Miles, who has been slowed in recent months by a painful Achilles injury, did not qualify for the finals during Wednesday’s pole vault preliminaries.
The injury has affected Miles’ training leading up to the Olympics. During Wednesday’s competition he was unable to clear the opening height.
“It was a tough day,” said Lucky Huber, the USD women’s track coach who has also coached Miles for several years. “The sore Achilles just never allowed Derek to get comfortable. It was obvious that he couldn’t train for the past month.”
Despite the tough day on Wednesday, Miles , a 1996 USD graduate, has been one of the most successful pole vaulters in the United States – and the world — over the past decade. He qualified for the Olympics three times, placing a career-best fourth in Beijing in 2008.
He has been ranked No. 1 in the United States in the pole vault four times and is a three-time U.S. National Champion. Prior to Wednesday’s competition, he had made the final in every World Championships and Olympics that he had competed in. read more http://www.kdlt.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19586&Itemid=58
Russian champion eyes 3rd Olympic pole vault title
(AP) Two-time Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva says she’s targeting a third gold medal at the 2016 Rio Games.After reflecting on her bronze medal from Monday, the 30-year-old Russian says she has “no reason to stop.”Isinbayeva tells The Associated Press that, “If I had got this gold medal from London, definitely I will stop, I will quit, I will retire.”She adds: “But the gods say, ‘OK, you have to stay a little bit more in the sport, so please continue, don’t stop’.”Isinbayeva fell short of becoming the first woman to win three straight Olympic titles in an individual athletics event.She said then that her “decision is changing every day” about continuing. Isinbayeva’s home city, Moscow, hosts the 2013
The Six Pillars of Olympic: Pillar 3
Pillar 3: Eat to Win
At the Beijing Olympics, Ryan Lochte picked up a stomach bug. So to play it safe, he ate every subsequent meal at McDonald’s. By the end of the Games, he’d gained 13 pounds of fat, despite burning 6,000-plus calories a day. If you ever needed proof that you can’t outtrain a bad diet, this is it. “I watch what I eat much more closely now,” Lochte says. “If my abs start to disappear, I tweak my diet.”Research shows that many of us overestimate the number of calories we burn during exercise. For instance, in a 2010 University of Ottawa study, people who walked briskly for 30 to 45 minutes thought they’d burned at least 825 calories—three to four times the actual amount. They subsequently overindulged by 300 to 350 calories.
The point of exercise, of course, is to end up with a net energy deficit. That is, you want to burn more calories over each 24-hour period than you consume. But a long list of hormones and metabolic processes make that surprisingly difficult to pull off. Hunger, to our everlasting frustration, is an unreliable guide to how much energy the human body really needs.
If weight control is an issue, use a three-step process to figure out how much you’re eating, how much you should be eating, and which times and circumstances are the most likely for imbalances to occur. Continue reading
