Clovis Street Vault started off its festivities yesterday (Thursday Aug. 5th) with a press conference at Fresno State University. Several local TV and radio stations were there interviewing the vaulters. Later that night the athletes, coaches, sponsors, officials etc. participated in a bowling tournament. Former USC vaulter, Jeff Ryan, cleaned house scoring a 279 game! I believe his team also won the tourney and brought home the big bucks! The Thugs (Scott Slover, John Besmer, Chris, and Sean Brown) were a lot of talk but could not keep up with the Starkey's, Tracy O'Hara, and Justin Norberg!!! O'Hara was the secret weapon:)
After a hard night of bowling, the athletes returned to Besmer's suite for some serious card playing. Slover started out hot, Jose (meet manager) hung in there for a rookie, but it was Jamison Whitting who cleaned up on the river!! Not sure how the game ended - had to catch some z's. There are athletes from coast to coast (New Hampshire to California) here looking to jump high and have fun! I will try and post results after the meet.
Clovis Street Vault
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It is held in downtown Clovis during their farmer's market and Big Hat Days. It starts around 5pm and lasts for a couple of hours. All the athlete's participating have a bag of shirts, shorts, mini vault poles, frisbee's etc. to give to fans when they clear a bar. There is usually around 7-10,000 people surrounding the pit. It is an awesome event for vaulting. There is a social afterwards at the Dog House Grill on Shaw Ave. Wilson, sorry you won't be able to make it, but have fun at your reunion!!
sounds like great fun. Clovis has a great downtown area... some fab eating places. I have been to big hat days years and years ago, My Dad loved it. He had all kinds of whacky cowboy hats and he loved the vault too bad he is gone now but I am sure he would have loved this event.... Maybe we will have to add this event to our summer list for next year.
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Dare the air
Pole vaulting, which makes its annual visit to Clovis on Friday, requires particular attention to detail.
By Ken Robison
The Fresno Bee
(Updated Thursday, August 5, 2004, 11:47 AM)
Fresno State vaulter Russell Weaver, who also competed at Clovis High (above), says of his sport: "You have to be able to take bumps and bruises. Everybody gets hurt. You fall pretty hard from 18 feet."
Pole vaulting isn't rocket science -- but it comes pretty close.
"The pole is the rocket; you're the space ship," says Fresno State track coach Bob Fraley, director of the North American Pole Vault Association's annual summer street-vault in downtown Clovis.
That's Fraley's way of explaining the event that requires equal doses of athleticism, technique and fearlessness.
It's a high-risk, daredevil sport that takes nothing less than a 100% effort, he says.
A lapse in concentration or focus could be dangerous: "You plant that pole," Fraley says. "You set the fuse of the rocket. You get on that dadgum thing, it's going to fire you."
Almost two dozen vaulters will compete Friday, including two who performed well at the recent U.S. Olympic track and field trials.
Former Fresno State vaulter Jim Davis soared 18 feet, 101/4 inches at the trials, placing seventh. That effort would have made the Olympic team any other year, Fraley says.
Tracy O'Hara, former NCAA women's record-holder at UCLA, placed fifth at the trials with a vault of 15-1.
With America's best vaulters preparing for the Olympics in Athens, Fraley calls Friday's field "the Olympics class of 2008." Indeed, Justin Norbert, Keenan King and Curt Hannaalso were Olympic trials finalists. Previous Clovis street-vaults have drawn several thousand spectators and it's anticipated a large crowd Friday will watch the athletes run down Pollasky Avenue and catapult themselves skyward.
It's a skill not recommended for the fainthearted or undisciplined.
"I used to think pole vaulters were the most cocky, arrogant [track athletes]," Bulldogs assistant coach Shannon Lieder says. "But it's not arrogance, just confidence."
Bergann Hernandez, a former Fresno State vaulter currently No. 3 in the NAPVA standings, says vaulting requires concentration.
"You have to sprint, you have to plant [the pole], you get upside down," he says. "And you have to think about all these things in a split second."
Technique is critical. Fraley talks about an athlete using the maximum number of "motor units" in vaulting, of getting into the "arc" of the bending pole. Discussion revolves around the length, weight and flexibility of poles, which can vary from 3-6 pounds and from 10-17 feet. A vaulter might uses a half-dozen poles in any one meet, depending on bar height, weather and feeling.
But mechanics aside, Fraley says it's the mentality that counts -- fearless and focused.
"There's a huge element of risk," he says. "You have to be smart enough to adjust to the conditions. It requires a 100% effort. The pole releases energy, and if you're out of position -- if you give 75% -- it's going to fire you back down the runway.
"If you have any fear, you can't do it."
The necessary skills are speed, strength, power, flexibility and knowledge of kinetics.
"You're upside down, you extend, turn and fly away," Fraley says. "All believing that if you follow through on this pattern you'll end up in the pit."
Unless the pole breaks.
Fresno State vaulter Russell Weaver, a four-time Western Athletic Conference champion, knows the trouble that can cause to an athlete's confidence.
"You have to be able to take bumps and bruises," says Weaver, from Clovis High. "Everybody gets hurt. You fall pretty hard from 18 feet. You have to bounce back and get back on.
"A lot of people can't handle their pole breaking. It takes a year or more to get back to trusting your pole. I bruised my arm [when the pole broke] but I got over it."
Today's poles are vastly different from the bamboo used in the days when Cornelius "Dutch" Warmerdam of Hanford dominated world vaulting in the 1940s at around 151/2 feet.
Pole vaulting dates to ancient Greece and has included using poles to jump onto horses or leap over bulls. It wasn't until the 18th century that the Germans developed vaulting as a vertical event.
Today's best vaulters exceed 19 feet. The world record is 20-13/4 set by Sergei Bubka in 1994. The women's record is 16-3/4 by Yelena Isinbayeva.
Will anyone Friday break the men's meet record of 18-101/2 by Kory Tarpening or the women's record of 15-13/4 by Mel Mueller? That surely would enthrall the crowd, but it's not the point because Fraley's annual vault-fest is as much show as competition.
By staging a single track and field event -- and a high-flying one, at that -- Fraley allows fans to get close to the athletes by crowding the pit area while loud rock music blares.
"People have to be entertained today -- it's part of the modern sports culture," he says. "I tell the athletes, you're here to entertain the families.
"It's about interaction between the fans and the audience. We want the crowd to have a good time. The pole vault, by nature, has a great entertainment value to it, and we try to make it as much a festival atmosphere as possible."
Pole vaulting, which makes its annual visit to Clovis on Friday, requires particular attention to detail.
By Ken Robison
The Fresno Bee
(Updated Thursday, August 5, 2004, 11:47 AM)
Fresno State vaulter Russell Weaver, who also competed at Clovis High (above), says of his sport: "You have to be able to take bumps and bruises. Everybody gets hurt. You fall pretty hard from 18 feet."
Pole vaulting isn't rocket science -- but it comes pretty close.
"The pole is the rocket; you're the space ship," says Fresno State track coach Bob Fraley, director of the North American Pole Vault Association's annual summer street-vault in downtown Clovis.
That's Fraley's way of explaining the event that requires equal doses of athleticism, technique and fearlessness.
It's a high-risk, daredevil sport that takes nothing less than a 100% effort, he says.
A lapse in concentration or focus could be dangerous: "You plant that pole," Fraley says. "You set the fuse of the rocket. You get on that dadgum thing, it's going to fire you."
Almost two dozen vaulters will compete Friday, including two who performed well at the recent U.S. Olympic track and field trials.
Former Fresno State vaulter Jim Davis soared 18 feet, 101/4 inches at the trials, placing seventh. That effort would have made the Olympic team any other year, Fraley says.
Tracy O'Hara, former NCAA women's record-holder at UCLA, placed fifth at the trials with a vault of 15-1.
With America's best vaulters preparing for the Olympics in Athens, Fraley calls Friday's field "the Olympics class of 2008." Indeed, Justin Norbert, Keenan King and Curt Hannaalso were Olympic trials finalists. Previous Clovis street-vaults have drawn several thousand spectators and it's anticipated a large crowd Friday will watch the athletes run down Pollasky Avenue and catapult themselves skyward.
It's a skill not recommended for the fainthearted or undisciplined.
"I used to think pole vaulters were the most cocky, arrogant [track athletes]," Bulldogs assistant coach Shannon Lieder says. "But it's not arrogance, just confidence."
Bergann Hernandez, a former Fresno State vaulter currently No. 3 in the NAPVA standings, says vaulting requires concentration.
"You have to sprint, you have to plant [the pole], you get upside down," he says. "And you have to think about all these things in a split second."
Technique is critical. Fraley talks about an athlete using the maximum number of "motor units" in vaulting, of getting into the "arc" of the bending pole. Discussion revolves around the length, weight and flexibility of poles, which can vary from 3-6 pounds and from 10-17 feet. A vaulter might uses a half-dozen poles in any one meet, depending on bar height, weather and feeling.
But mechanics aside, Fraley says it's the mentality that counts -- fearless and focused.
"There's a huge element of risk," he says. "You have to be smart enough to adjust to the conditions. It requires a 100% effort. The pole releases energy, and if you're out of position -- if you give 75% -- it's going to fire you back down the runway.
"If you have any fear, you can't do it."
The necessary skills are speed, strength, power, flexibility and knowledge of kinetics.
"You're upside down, you extend, turn and fly away," Fraley says. "All believing that if you follow through on this pattern you'll end up in the pit."
Unless the pole breaks.
Fresno State vaulter Russell Weaver, a four-time Western Athletic Conference champion, knows the trouble that can cause to an athlete's confidence.
"You have to be able to take bumps and bruises," says Weaver, from Clovis High. "Everybody gets hurt. You fall pretty hard from 18 feet. You have to bounce back and get back on.
"A lot of people can't handle their pole breaking. It takes a year or more to get back to trusting your pole. I bruised my arm [when the pole broke] but I got over it."
Today's poles are vastly different from the bamboo used in the days when Cornelius "Dutch" Warmerdam of Hanford dominated world vaulting in the 1940s at around 151/2 feet.
Pole vaulting dates to ancient Greece and has included using poles to jump onto horses or leap over bulls. It wasn't until the 18th century that the Germans developed vaulting as a vertical event.
Today's best vaulters exceed 19 feet. The world record is 20-13/4 set by Sergei Bubka in 1994. The women's record is 16-3/4 by Yelena Isinbayeva.
Will anyone Friday break the men's meet record of 18-101/2 by Kory Tarpening or the women's record of 15-13/4 by Mel Mueller? That surely would enthrall the crowd, but it's not the point because Fraley's annual vault-fest is as much show as competition.
By staging a single track and field event -- and a high-flying one, at that -- Fraley allows fans to get close to the athletes by crowding the pit area while loud rock music blares.
"People have to be entertained today -- it's part of the modern sports culture," he says. "I tell the athletes, you're here to entertain the families.
"It's about interaction between the fans and the audience. We want the crowd to have a good time. The pole vault, by nature, has a great entertainment value to it, and we try to make it as much a festival atmosphere as possible."
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