http://www.iaaf.org/WAF04/news/Kind=4/newsId=27410.html
Men's Pole Vault
Saturday 18 September 2004
Ending this competition on a dramatic high note, Tim Mack set a new competition record and improved his personal best by 6 centimetres as he joined the 6 metre club in Monaco this afternoon. He cleared 6.01 metres at his third attempt to close a competition he had already won as he remained alone at 5.86 metres, before unsuccessful attempts at 6.05 and 6.15 metres.
The strains of a long season were much in evidence in the men’s Pole Vault, with four of the competitors eliminated by the third bar.
First to fall by the wayside were Igor Pavlov of Russia and Jeff Hartwig (USA), with three failures at 5.60, then with the bar raised to 5.70, it was the turn of Tim Lobinger from Germany and Italian star Giuseppe Gibilisco, the 2003 World champion and Olympic bronze medalist in Athens, to leave the competition
5.78 metres for the fourth bar of the competition and Derek Miles was the next vaulter out with three failures, followed closely by Israel’s Alex Averbukh. A second round clearance had saved Tim Mack for the next round and after two failures at this height, With nothing to lose and everything to gain, Toby Stevenson (USA) elected to pass on his third attempt to go for bust at 5.86 metres, the next bar.
Tim Mack was clear at his first attempt and that was the end of that, as Stevenson vaulted, looked as though he could be clear and then fell onto the bar as he descended, leaving victory in the hands of the Olympic champion.
With the competition concluded, Mack, who had jumped a personal best and Olympic record of 5.95 metres to win in Athens, asked that the bar be raised to 6.01 metres, a move that looked overly ambitious as he halted on his pole at the first attempt and hit the bar on his second, but bouyed by the enthusiasm of the crowd, the American set off down the runway and produced a faultless vault at his third attempt to set a new personal best and new competition record of 6.01 metres, demolishing the previous World Athletics Final recod of 5.91 metres set by Tim Lobinger in the inaugural edition last year.
One attempt at 6.05 metres and two at 6.15-the American record and world record heights were unsuccessful, but presaged Mack's plans for next year.
