PoleVaultPower.com

I know this is really an equipment thread, but to the best of my knowledge, no one is using these in the US, and they have played a role in many major championship meets over the years...


If you have ever watched the Olympics or World Chamionships on TV, you may have noticed those really cool standards where they automatically raise and lower after each attempt. If you follow online, you may have also noticed that they break. ALL THE TIME.

So what's the deal? Do they all suck? Do any of our international members use these regularly without problems?


I think that due to the consistent failure rate of this style of equipment, the IAAF should ban their use in international championship meets.

Here's what happens... The pole vault competition proceeds as normal. Everyone gets into a rhythm. The next vaulter gets on the runway to go. But the officials can't get the bar up. The vaulter has no idea how long the fix will take. If they could say "it will be a 10 minute delay", then the vaulter would know what to do. But everyone left to jump has to stay warm, because they _could_ be up any minute. But it seems like these fixes usually take 20 minutes or longer.

The problem is that usually when this happens, some vaulters have made the bar, and some have not. The vaulters who have made the bar can just chill, but the vaulters who have not have to waste a lot of energy trying to stay warm.

World Indoor Champs 2010: Hooker makes the bar before the equipment breaks. Lavillenie does not and is out.
Olympics 2008: Hooker makes the bar before the equipment breaks. Brad Walker does not and is out.

There are more examples, these are just the ones that come to mind.




This style of equipment is not significantly faster than traditional standards with an experienced crew of officials. The very high failure rate of this style of equipment has led to unfair conditions in the biggest meets of the year. Conditions that have not affected all athletes equally.

These are also extremely expensive, often ~$50,000 a set, while a top-notch set of traditional standards cost under $6000


This is one technological advance that has been a step backward, not forward.

rainbowgirl28 wrote:World Indoor Champs 2010: Hooker makes the bar before the equipment breaks. Lavillenie does not and is out.
Olympics 2008: Hooker makes the bar before the equipment breaks. Brad Walker does not and is out.

are you insinuating that Steve Hooker is sabotaging the standards to gain an advantage?

Haha no, he's just had some good luck in that department.

rainbowgirl28 wrote:I know this is really an equipment thread, but to the best of my knowledge, no one is using these in the US...

The fancy standards also broke at the 96 OG. Michaell Stolle broke it at 5.80 and it took over an hour for a new standard to be installed. I believe Lawrence Johnson was then up for his 3rd and promptly missed.

Let's not forget 05, Helsinki when Brad won Silver, they broke there too and were down for 45 min. Finaaly Bubka made them go to a manual cross bar. It worked fine from then on.

So these evil standards have broken down at:
2010 World Indoor Championships
2008 Olympic Games
2005 World Championships
1996 Olympic games

Where else?

rainbowgirl28 wrote: Where else?

I see a trend here ... isn't that enough?

A better question might be ... Where did they NOT break down? That is ... what's the batting average of these new-fangled standards and bar-putter-uppers?

ESPECIALLY for important events like the above, the RELIABILITY should be close to 100%. Doesn't sound like it's even close.

Kirk

rainbowgirl28 wrote:Haha no, he's just had some good luck in that department.

Nahh, the Force is strong in him.....

Given that these have broken down in events as prestigious as the Olympics and world championships, I believe that it is safe to assume that officials and personnel did much to secure the reliance of these machines?

Assuming that premise as fact, then I support that these machines should not be used in highly ranked events. To my knowledge, the purpose of these machines is to increase efficiency and accuracy in adjusting heights, correct? Well, when these break down it potentially causes many athletes their height, knocking them out of the competition, leaving certain athletes with an unfair advantage. The cons of these machines appear to greatly outweigh the pros of moving the standards up and down faster, easier, and more accurately.

My wish is that they will break down and piss off Isi... then she can complain to Bubka and maybe something will change.

I totally agree they should be gone but I think they are worried the "officials" can't raise the bar manually.

BTW – Achtung/Dev - in '96, not only did LoJo miss, he completed the entire jump in front of the bar and didn't realize he was about to almost land in the box. The crowd behind the pit cheered because they thought he made it. Something similar happened in 1976 when Dave Roberts completed his vault in front of the bar and the scoreboard flashed "Olympic Record" until they were corrected.

Anyway - dump them and let local vaulters serve as officials to efficiently get the bar up and work the standards. Bubba