“Pole Vault” – The sport
Pole vaulting or commonly known as pole jumping is one of the famous athletic events. In pole vault, a vaulter jumps over a bar using a long pole. Among all the athletic events, pole vault is the most technical one, as it requires vigorous hard work and practice in order to master the pole vaulting technique.
The origin of pole vaulting competition is associated to the ancient Greeks, but long before that poles were used by people to cross water canals and for moving boats near the shores.
Today, pole vaulting is a track and field event in which athletes or vaulters choose height for their jump on entering in the competition. Once they enter they have three attempts to cross the height. If they succeed in doing so, they move to the next height. If any of the vaulters missed or failed to cross the height then he is out of the competition. The vaulter who jumps the greatest height is declared as winner. Furthermore, there is a set time frame for each vaulter to cross the bar. If any athlete fails to complete an attempt within the given time, then the attempt is declared as a miss and the vaulter is announced of being charged with a time foul.
There are many approved techniques for crossing the bar but a general technique consists of four stages. It begins with the approach stage, the first stage in which a vaulter sprints down the runway in order to attain maximum momentum and speed before reaching the pit. In the second stage, which is plant and take-off stage, vaulter puts the pole in the box. In the third stage which is the swing up, the vaulter swings his legs forward and puts his arm down to his chest. This is done in order to give more potential energy to the vaulter. In the fly away stage which is the final stage, the vaulter pushes the pole away and makes sure it does not touch the pole and the vaulter on executing the jump correctly, ends up facing the pit.
Overall practice is very important for timely and correct execution of pole vaulting.
In 2010, The International Association of Athletics Federations World Indoor Championships (IAAF) was held in Qatar, between 12th and 14th march. The men’s pole vault was held on 12th and 13th march, in which Australian Steeve Hooker won gold, Malte Mohr of Germany won silver and Alexender straub of Germany won bronze.
In women’s pole vault at 2010 in IAAF, Brazilian Fabiana Murer won gold when Fabiana took benefit of Isinbayeva’s at 4.75 m, by continuing at 4.80 m, and by that she for the first time won her first global championship. In IAAF, The silver and bronze were won by Russian Svetlana Feofanova and Anna Rogowska of Poland respectively.
Steeve Hooker despite winning gold at the 2010 IAAF, failed to beat the world’s pole vault record of Sergey Bubka. It was highly anticipated that Steeve would break 6.14 m long record of Bubka, that has remain unchallenged for 17 years, but Steeve failed to do so.
Hooker said “I think one day I will be able to do it, but it's a big ask to do it on a given day,"
Russian Yelena Isinbayeva who made a women’s season best in pole vault in 2009 and who has broken the indoor and outdoor marks 27 times, was hoping to achieve a world record in IAAF in 2010 but she had to leave IAAF without a medal and since then she is on rest. She is hoping to get back for Olympics in 2012 at London and once again she is hoping to achieve her long desired goal.
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