Happy birthday, Gerard Dumas -- in 60th year of vaulting!

[roger/over]

Further to Ken Stone's post of March on Gérard Dumas' goal of reaching 1000 vault competitions by the end of this season, I can report that Gérard is closing in on this number. He recorded his 999th vault result on June 23rd, finishing third in the British Columbia Open, at Kamloops, with 2.45m. He expects the number of vault competitions to reach his long-time goal with a competition at Tacoma, WA. on July 4th. This season also marks his 60th consecutive year with at least one result in a sanctioned meet. And, by the way, he doesn't intend to hang 'em up just because he reaches a thousand: He says he has eight more meets scheduled this year.

The BC Open was won by Andy Miller, and they were lucky it was scheduled on Saturday, not Sunday. If the weather reports have it right, on June 24th they had 15 centimeters of snow in Kamloops.

A bit more to add next week, if the Tacoma meet isn’t snowed out, or hit by a sunami, or whatever.

[master]

Go for it Gerard! We're all proud of you Wish I could there for your 1000th competition.

- master

[SlickVT]

Put it in the record books. That is awesome.

I am a fan...

[Powervaulter]

Hats off to Gerard who had to start at 2.45m, and was still able to get over. Good luck in Tacoma... I won't be there until a little later, since I'm teaching summer school in the morning.

[roger/over]

Just to note that Gérard did record his 1000th vault competion, as planned, at the Tacoma Beach Vault on July 4th. Unfortunately, he pulled his right gastrocnemius in the warmup and had to settle for the starting height of 2.17m on two strides.

He'll be back, and better.