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Athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Men's pole vault

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Men's pole vault
at the Games of the XXXI Olympiad
VenueOlympic Stadium
Dates13–15 August 2016
Competitors31 from 16 nations
Winning height6.03 OR, AR
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Thiago Braz  Brazil
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Renaud Lavillenie  France
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Sam Kendricks  United States
← 2012
2020 →
Official Video Highlights

The men's pole vault competition at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The event was held at the Olympic Stadium between 13–15 August.[1] Thirty-one athletes from 16 nations competed.[2] Thiago Braz of Brazil won the gold medal, the nation's first medal in the men's pole vault. Renaud Lavillenie of France was unable to successfully defend his 2012 gold, but became the seventh man to win two medals with silver this time. Sam Kendricks's bronze returned the United States to the podium after a one-Games absence.

Summary

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Background

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This was the 28th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics.

The world record holder (having broken Sergey Bubka's 20-year-old record in 2014), Renaud Lavillenie of France, entered as the reigning Olympic champion from 2012 and held the best vaults indoors and out before the competition. The 2015 World Champion Shawnacy Barber of Canada ranked just behind, having had his first six-metre clearance that season. One of Brazil's best athletics medal hopes was Thiago Braz, the 2012 World Junior Champion (ahead of Barber), who had the third best mark of the year. The American champion Sam Kendricks was also highly ranked and had won silver at the 2016 World Indoor Championships behind Lavillenie.[3][4][5] In addition to Lavillenie, the returning finalists from 2008 were bronze medalist Raphael Holzdeppe of Germany, sixth-place finisher Konstadinos Filippidis of Greece, and seventh-place finisher Jan Kudlička of the Czech Republic.

No nation made its men's pole vaulting debut, the fifth Games that occurred. The United States made its 27th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Competition

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In the qualifying round, nine men reached 5.70 m with three others progressing on 5.60 m. An injury-affected Raphael Holzdeppe, a former world champion and Olympic medallist, exited at this stage, as did 2011 world champion Paweł Wojciechowski. Both Barber and Braz required three attempts at their opening height but managed to progress. Braz, Kendricks and Greece's Konstadínos Filippídis showed form as the only athletes to clear 5.70 m in one attempt.[6]

After one attempt by Xue Changrui, the final round was delayed for one hour and restarted from scratch due to a rainstorm that passed through. Six competitors had already exited the competition before defending champion/world record holder Renaud Lavillenie took his first attempt at 5.75 m. Among the eliminated was 2015 World Champion Shawnacy Barber. There was a great deal of strategic passing in this event, place meaning everything in the Olympics as opposed to most other competitions where the fraternity of pole vaulters are all seeking to improve their personal best. The medalists were settled with a first attempt clearance of 5.85 m. Jan Kudlička and Piotr Lisek missed once and strategically passed to 5.93 m where they missed, while Xie had already strategically passed to 5.85 m and missed. Sam Kendricks was high over his bars earlier in the competition but could go no further than 5.85 m and had to settle for bronze, while Lavillenie held the lead with a clean round of first attempt clearances to 5.98 m (the latter improving his own Olympic record from London). Home town favorite Thiago Braz cleared an outdoor personal record of 5.93 m on his second attempt to surpass Kendricks. Jumping ahead of him, after Lavillenie cleared 5.98 m, with nothing to be gained by a clearance, Braz passed. At the next height, 6.03 m (19 ft 9+14 in) after Lavillenie had missed twice, on his second attempt, Braz made a solid clearance. Lavillenie passed to the next height, 6.08 m. Even though he holds the world record, that was set in controlled conditions indoors, 6.08 m is a height he has never cleared outdoors. These conditions, with rain and wind affecting competitions all across the Olympic venues, were anything but controlled. Lavillenie missed and the Olympic title was settled.[7]

Braz set a new South American Record, a 10 cm improvement over his own record. The clearance remains tied with Okkert Brits and Jeff Hartwig as the ninth highest jump in history, and currently stands as the Olympic record.[8] At 6.03 m, Braz was the highest jumper for first time entry into the Six metres club.

The following evening the medals were presented by Bernard Rajzman, IOC member, Brazil and Roberto Gesta de Melo, Council Member of the IAAF.

Qualification

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A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to 3 qualified athletes in the men's pole vault event if all athletes met the entry standard during the qualifying period. (The limit of 3 has been in place since the 1930 Olympic Congress.) The qualifying standard was 5.70 metres. The qualifying period was from 1 May 2015 to 11 July 2016. The qualifying distance standards could be obtained in various meets during the given period that have the approval of the IAAF. Both indoor and outdoor meets were accepted. NOCs could also use their universality place—each NOC could enter one male athlete regardless of time if they had no male athletes meeting the entry standard for an athletics event—in the pole vault.[9][10]

Competition format

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The competition consisted of two rounds, qualification and final. In qualification, each athlete had three attempts at each height and was eliminated if he failed to clear any height. Athletes who successfully jumped the qualifying height moved on to the final. If fewer than 12 reached that height, the best 12 moved on. Cleared heights reset for the final, which followed the same three-attempts-per-height format until all athletes reached a height they could not jump.

Records

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Prior to the competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record  Renaud Lavillenie (FRA) 6.16 Donetsk, Ukraine 15 February 2014
Olympic record  Renaud Lavillenie (FRA) 5.97 London, United Kingdom 10 August 2012
2016 World leading  Renaud Lavillenie (FRA) 5.96 Sotteville-lès-Rouen, France 18 July 2016

Two men were left after 5.93 metres, with the bar raised to a potential Olympic record height of 5.98 metres. Renaud Lavillenie cleared it on his first attempt, breaking the record. Thiago Braz passed at the height, as matching the new record would do him no good in placement in the event. At 6.03 metres, Lavillenie missed, Braz missed, Lavillenie missed again, and then Braz cleared to take the Olympic record from Lavillenie. The Frenchman took his final attempt at 6.08 metres, unsuccessfully; with the gold medal secured, Braz did not jump at the greater height.

The following national record was established during the competition:

Country Athlete Round Height Notes
Brazil  Thiago Braz (BRA) Final 6.03 OR, AR

Schedule

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All times are Brasilia Time (UTC-3)

Date Time Round
Saturday, 13 August 2016 20:20 Qualifying
Monday, 15 August 2016 20:35 Finals

Results

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Key

  • o = Height cleared
  • x = Height failed
  • = Height passed
  • r  = Retired
  • SB = Season's best
  • PB = Personal best
  • NR = National record
  • AR = Area record
  • OR = Olympic record
  • WR = World record
  • WL = World lead
  • NM = No mark
  • DNS = Did not start
  • DQ = Disqualified

Qualifying round

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Qualification rule: Qualifying performance 5.75 (Q) or at least 12 best performers (q) advance to the Final.

Rank Group Athlete Nation 5.30 5.45 5.60 5.70 Height Notes
1 A Sam Kendricks  United States o o o o 5.70 q
2 B Konstadinos Filippidis  Greece o o xo o 5.70 q
3 B Thiago Braz  Brazil xx– o o 5.70 q
4 A Renaud Lavillenie  France xo 5.70 q
A Xue Changrui  China o o xo 5.70 q
6 A Piotr Lisek  Poland o xo xo 5.70 q
7 B Shawnacy Barber  Canada xxo o xo 5.70 q
A Germán Chiaraviglio  Argentina o o xxo xo 5.70 q, SB
A Jan Kudlička  Czech Republic o o xxo xo 5.70 q
10 B Michal Balner  Czech Republic o o o xxx 5.60 q
A Pauls Pujāts  Latvia o o o xxx 5.60 q
A Daichi Sawano  Japan o o xxx 5.60 q
13 A Robert Sobera  Poland o x o xxx 5.60
14 B Yao Jie  China xo xo xxx 5.60
15 A Kurtis Marschall  Australia o o xxo xxx 5.60
16 B Mareks Ārents  Latvia o o xxx 5.45
B Huang Bokai  China o o xxx 5.45
B Stanley Joseph  France o o xxx 5.45
B Kévin Menaldo  France o xr 5.45
B Paweł Wojciechowski  Poland o o xxx 5.45
21 A Hiroki Ogita  Japan xo o xxx 5.45
22 A Luke Cutts  Great Britain o xo xxx 5.45
A Augusto Dutra de Oliveira  Brazil o xo xxx 5.45
B Robert Renner  Slovenia o xo xxx 5.45
25 A Tobias Scherbarth  Germany xo xo xxx 5.45
26 A Raphael Holzdeppe  Germany xxo xxx 5.45
27 B Ivan Horvat  Croatia o xxx 5.30
28 B Logan Cunningham  United States xxo xxx 5.30
B Karsten Dilla  Germany xxo xxx 5.30
B Cale Simmons  United States xxo xxx 5.30
B Seito Yamamoto  Japan xxx NM
A Melker Svärd Jacobsson  Sweden DNS

Final

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Rank Athlete Nation 5.50 5.65 5.75 5.85 5.93 5.98 6.03 6.08 Height Notes
1st place, gold medalist(s) Thiago Braz  Brazil o xo o xo xo 6.03 OR, AR
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Renaud Lavillenie  France o o o o xx– x 5.98
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Sam Kendricks  United States o xo x– o xxx 5.85
4 Jan Kudlička  Czech Republic o o o x– xx 5.75
Piotr Lisek  Poland o o o x– xx 5.75
6 Xue Changrui  China xxo xxo xx– x 5.65
7 Michal Balner  Czech Republic o xxx 5.50
Konstadinos Filippidis  Greece o xxx 5.50
Daichi Sawano  Japan o xxx 5.50
10 Shawnacy Barber  Canada xo xxx 5.50
11 Germán Chiaraviglio  Argentina xxo xxx 5.50
Pauls Pujāts  Latvia xxx NM

References

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  1. ^ "Men's Pole Vault". Archived from the original on 6 August 2016. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
  2. ^ "Pole Vault, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
  3. ^ Landells, Steve (2016-08-08). Preview: men's pole vault – Rio 2016 Olympic Games. IAAF. Retrieved on 2016-08-14.
  4. ^ senior indoor 2016 Pole Vault men. IAAF. Retrieved on 2016-08-14.
  5. ^ senior outdoor 2016 Pole Vault men. IAAF. Retrieved on 2016-08-14.
  6. ^ Landells, Steve (2016-08-14). Report: men's pole vault qualifying – Rio 2016 Olympic Games. IAAF. Retrieved on 2016-08-14.
  7. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 September 2016. Retrieved 16 August 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. ^ "Pole Vault - men - senior - outdoor".
  9. ^ "IAAF approves entry standards for Rio 2016 Olympic Games". Athletics Weekly. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  10. ^ "Qualification System – Games of the XXXI Olympiad – Athletics". IAAF. Retrieved 15 July 2016.