by Larry Eder
Different stadiums have different challenges, from swirling winds, to humidity, to just plain hot and humid conditions.
The winds in the Daegu Stadium change at a moment’s notice and there was some frustration. In the end, the Men’s pole vault was a huge chess game, where the leaders changed several times, based on heights cleared, attempts needed to clear said heights, and then, when it game down to the final three, well, it was all about the heights.
Here is how we saw it:
Lazaro Borges, 2011 WC Pole Vault, silver medalist, photo by PhotoRun.net
The vault started off sedate enough. Wojciechowski, Borges, Lukasz Mchalski of Poland, Malte Mohr of Germany, Kostnadinos Filippidis of Greece, Jeremy Scott of the US, Jan Kudlicka of Czech Republic, and Derek Miles of the US cleared 5.50m on first attempts.
Mateusz Didnkow of Poland took two attempts, as did Fabio Gomes da Silva of Brazil, and Dmitry Starodubtsev of Russia, to clear 5.50 meters.
Daichi Sawano of Japan took two attempts to clear 5.50m.
Igor Bychov of Spain missed all three attempts at 5.50m and was out of the competition.
At 5.65, Pawel Wojciechowski of Poland, Lazaro Borges of Cuba, Renaud Lavillenie of France, Lukasz Michalski of Poland, Fabio Gomes de Silva of Cuba, all cleared on first attempts.
Malte Mohr of Germany, Konstadninos Filippides of Greece, Mateusz Didenkow, Jeremy Scott of the US, Steven Lewis of Great Britain, Jan Kudlicka of Czech Republic, Dmitry Starodubtsev of Russia, all cleared on the second attempt.
Daichi Sawano of Japan needed three attempts to clear 5.65m. Derek Miles of the US also needed three attempts to clear 5.65m.
Romain Mesnil of France, who passed at 5.50, missed all three attempts at 5.65m.
At 5.75m, Pawel Wojciechowski of Poland cleared on his first attempt, as did Renaud Lavillenie of France, and Malte Mohr of Germany.
Two attempts at 5.75m were needed by Lukasz Michalski of Poland and Konstandinos Filippidies of Greece, who set a national record at 5.75m.
Lazaro Borges of Cuba and Mateusz Didenkow of Poland both needed three attempts to clear 5.75m.
Going out at 5.75, after three attempts were Fabio Gomes da Silva, Jeremy Scott of the US, Steven Lewis of Great Britain, Jan Kudlicka of Czech Republic, Dmitry Starodubtsev of Russia, Derek Miles of the US, and Daichi Sawano of Japan.
At 5.85m, it got interesting. Pawel Wojciechowski of Poland missed on one attempt and passed up to the next height.
Lazaro Borges of Cuba cleared 5.85m on his first attempt. Renaud Lavillenie of France also cleared 5.85m on his first attempt. So did Lukasz Michalski of Poland.
Pawel Wojciechowski took two attempts to clear 5.90 meters. Lazaro Borges of Cuba took three to clear 5.90 meters.
When Renaud Lavillenie of France missed all three attempts, as did Malte Mohr of Germany, Wojciechowski and Borges were gold and silver. Lavillenie got the bronze based on his less attempts at 5.75m height.
Both Pawel Wojciechowski and Lazaro Borges made three game attempts at 5.95m, but did not make it.
So, based on his first attempt clearance at 5.90 meters, Poland’s Pawel Wojciechowski won the gold in the pole vault and Lazaro Borges of Cuba took the silver.
And the Men’s pole vault continues to be an enigma wrapped in a technical event.
