Bud Held M80 WR 2.65 (8-8.25)

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.usatf.org/news/view.aspx?DUI ... 7_18_54_17

Olympian Bud Held sets world record at 2008 USA Masters Outdoor Championships
08-07-2008

SPOKANE, Wash. - Although he was a 1952 Olympian as a javelin thrower, Franklin "Bud" Held set an age-group world record in the pole vault Thursday at the 2008 USA Masters Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Spokane Falls Community College in Spokane, Wash. The event will continue through Sunday.

The USA Masters Outdoor Championships annually showcases extraordinary demonstrations of speed, power, skill and endurance by many of the world's finest masters track and field athletes. Athletes compete in five-year age divisions, beginning at age 30.

Held, 80, who took up the pole vault as a high schooler in 1942, made his fame in the javelin throw, winning four national collegiate titles, six U.S. national crowns and claimed the U.S. record on six occasions. Held became the first American ever to own the world javelin record in 1953 and he was inducted into the National Track & Field Hall of Fame in 1987.

Held decided to take up the pole vault again as a masters athlete at age 60, and this afternoon under a broiling sun with temperatures in the low 90s, he cleared 2.65 meters/8 feet 8.25 inches in bettering the listed masters world record for the men's 80-84 age-group.

"I haven't been practicing much lately because my legs have been week," said Held. "On my last attempt at the record I placed my left hand a little higher on the pole and it worked for me."