PoleVaultPower.com

There is a three way race for DL victor between Silva, Spiegelburg and Murer.

http://www.diamondleague-brussels.com/e ... vault-Men/

Silva goes out with Murer and Spiegelburg ahead of her, so no Diamonds for her.

Spigelburg is the winner, Murer second. The points breakdown is 4-2-1, and she came into this with 8 points, to Murer's 10. They will both finish with 12 points, I will have to see what the tie-breakers are.

Oh just kidding, they double the points in the final meet. So Spiegelburg will come from behind to take the Diamond League victory!

So she gets $10,000 for today's victory, plus $40,000 and a "spectacular diamond trophy" for being the overall DL champ!

Wow! With two misses at 4.70, and the victory clinched, Spiegelburg passes to 4.75 and makes it!

No luck for Silke at 4.83, but she walks away with $$$$$$

The crazy factor is according to the IAAF and the Diamond League that the overall winner of the Diamond League is considered the World's #1 athlete in that event. The following is from the Diamond League site.


The Samsung Diamond League encompasses 32 individual Event Disciplines, with a points scoring ‘Diamond Race’ which runs throughout the 14 meeting series. Winners of each Diamond Race will get a Diamond Trophy and a cash prize but more importantly, will have shown season long consistency to earn the unchallenged honour of being the World Number 1.



Silke won it last year too, yet Jen was named the #1 pole vaulter in the world. Another IAAF flaw of not knowing their own system. Right now according to All-Athletics.com Silva is the #1 vaulter in the world. So who will get the title this year. Who the IAAF says should get it or Silva?


BTW the tie breaker is who every finishes higher in the finally.

All-Athletics has their rankings and T&F News has their rankings. I am sure that T&FN does not automatically consider the DL champ the world's #1 athlete, especially in an Olympic year, though it carries a lot of weight.

I would also imagine, at least as far as T&FN goes, that the value of being DL winner would be affected by how much you really dominated the circuit.

For example, on the men's side, there is NO question that Lavillenie will be #1 (remember that they value big meet victories 100x more than big marks in small meets). He won the Olympics and dominated the Diamond League.

Silke only won one other DL meet before the final, so her DL victory is not nearly as impressive as his. She really doesn't have any other big victories this year besides her National Championships. She was 4th at the Olympics, 4th at the European Championships and 4th at World Indoor (poor girl!)

Silva was 2nd at the Olympics, 7th at World Indoors, won 1 DL meet plus three 2nds.

Murer won 2 DL meets and was 2nd in the final, but did not even make the final at the Olympics.

Suhr did not compete in many big meets, but, aside from two NHs, she was undefeated and had one DL victory. She won the biggest prize of all this year, the OLYMPICS!


I don't know who will get the #1 ranking, but my guess is Jenn will get a lot of votes. None of the women dominated this year, and I think an Olympic victory will probably mean more in the end than a somewhat weak Diamond League victory.

Rankings are simple:

1. Head to head competition
2. Honors and titles won
3. Marks Cleared
---and in that order---

According to critera of track and field news, this is a clear pick of Suhr. Over the last two years (stats found on T&F) Suhr is 5-2 over Spiegelburg--- 5-1 on Silva --- 5-2 against Murer and shockingly 3-0 against Isinbayeva the last 3 times she competed against her. Head to head there is no comparison so that proves last year and this year.

Honors and titles won: The greatest thing you can ever achieve in pole vault in the world is to be Olympic Champion. Nothing else is even remotely close....nothing. It is the highest honor or title that you can win. Jenn Suhr is the 1st two time American Olympic medalist in the pole vault in 40 years since Bob Seagren!

Marks: Jenn had the highest mark in the world in 2010, 2011, and in 2012 jumped 4.88 indoors for AR and 4.81 outdoor. These two marks combined are higher than Silva, Spiegelburg, or Murer's.

Diamond League meets can be strong and can be very weak depending upon who shows up. All-Athletics is not considered very much in TandF rankings because of the weakness of alot of diamond league events.

Last year was a close call. Although the head-to-head is what got Suhr #1. But with an Olympic Gold, and a 2-1 victory margin over all the other vaulters in the world. A 4.88 AR record indoors and winning 9-11 meets participated in 2012 that is far more winning than anyone else.

I think PoleVaultPower understands the system and is much more accurate than is ADTF Academy.

ADTF understands the system very well, he is just stating what the IAAF and Diamond League state: That the overall DL winner is the World's #1 athlete. This is obviously not a statement accepted universally by people who produce track and field rankings

As far as picking the 2012 #1, they'll only look at head-to-head for this year. According to Tilastopaja, Suhr is 2-1 against Silke, 1-1 against Murer (2-1 if you count the Olympics), and 2-1 against Silva.

I think honors won tends to weigh a bit heavier than head-to-head though, at least that is the impression I have gotten from the T&FN crowd.

For example, if Lavillenie had won iWC, EC, OG, but lost to Otto in almost every other meet, I think he would probably still get the #1 rankings.

Height cleared means almost nothing unless it was a major meet. The rankers have given almost zero consideration to anything on US soil unless it is at USAs or one of the Diamond League meets. They will give slight consideration from a major meet like Mt SAC or Texas Relays, but marks from Chula Vista or the Gill Factory vault will be pretty much ignored. Otto's 6.01 will be ignored too, but his seconds at iWC, ECs, and OG (and generally solid performances elsewhere) will lock him up for that world #2 ranking.

I have to agree that Jenn will probably get the world #1 ranking. Winning the Olympics does not guarantee you get it, but no one else can make a stronger claim to it, IMO.