PoleVaultPower.com

Athletics Australia - Organization License
Go for 2n5 Australian Athletics Championships - 16/04/2010 to 18/04/201
Perth

Event 96 Men Pole Vault Open
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World Record: W 6.14m 31/07/1994 Sergey Bubka, UKR
All Comers: A 6.00m 26/02/2005 Paul Burgess, AUS
Meet: M 5.95m 2007 Brad Walker, USA
National: N 6.06m 07/02/2009 Steven Hooker, WA
5.65m CA
5.45m CB
Name Year Team Finals Points
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Finals
1 Steven Hooker 82 WAIS 5.80m CA
3.40 3.80 4.20 4.60 4.85 5.05 5.20 5.35 5.45 5.55 5.80 5.95 6.01
P P P P P P P P P O O XXP X
2 Blake Lucas 90 VIC 5.05m
3.40 3.80 4.20 4.60 4.85 5.05 5.20
P P P P XO O XXX
3 James Filshie 81 VIC 5.05m
3.40 3.80 4.20 4.60 4.85 5.05 5.20
P P P P O XO XXX
3 Tim MacDermot 83 SA 5.05m
3.40 3.80 4.20 4.60 4.85 5.05 5.20
P P P P O XO XXX
5 Joel Pocklington 86 VIC 5.05m
3.40 3.80 4.20 4.60 4.85 5.05 5.20
P P P O XO XO XXX
6 Matt Boyd 88 QAS 5.05m
3.40 3.80 4.20 4.60 4.85 5.05 5.20
P P P P P XXO XXX
7 Christopher Clegg 84 NSW 4.85m
3.40 3.80 4.20 4.60 4.85 5.05
P P P XO O XXX
8 Cameron Sherry 80 VIC 4.60m
3.40 3.80 4.20 4.60 4.85
P P O XO XXX
9 Anthony Hanna 82 VIC 4.60m
3.40 3.80 4.20 4.60 4.85
P P P XXO XXX
10 Howard Arbuthnot 67 QLD 4.20m
3.40 3.80 4.20 4.60
P P O XXX
11 David Murray 86 NSW 3.40m
3.40
O
-- Richard Moecks 81 SA NH
3.40 3.80 4.20 4.60 4.85 5.05
P P P P XXP X


http://www.athletics.com.au/competition ... ve_results

Did they all jump in one flight? Why on earth would you let they guys under 4.60 in the meet?

They've got funny rules here in Aus. Basically, guys who come 1st and 2nd in the State Champs will have a consideration to compete even if they don't jump the official qualifying height of 4.80m (I think, I'm not even sure anymore) for Nationals. I'm not sure about the other states but our state (NSW - which is already the weakest link) had a very weak season. The State Championships was won at 4.40m (although he jumped 4.80 during the season) and the the next height was 3.80m! - so they let both guys in. I guess it's a way of "filling up" the competition. And yes they all compete in one flight, there's no need to qualify if there's only 10-12 competitors. In most local events throughout the year (non-GP, State or National Champs) males and females compete in the same flight because there are few enough numbers (under 12-ish) to accommodate it! I guess you'll have funny rules if you only have 22 million people in the country!

But at the same time a lot of funny things happen at the State level. I know NSW has been hampered by some terrible State level organizing. Basically, aside from the major competitions (GP, State, Nationals), athletes from NSW only had 4 opportunities to compete in the pole vault over the November-April season! And all but one of those opportunities were located at the same place 2 hours out of Sydney, which I guess is an explanation as to why the number of competitors this year was about cut in half from last. You can say that the state has done a fantastic job killing interest in our sport! It's really bad across the board but the "not so mainstream" events get the worst of it. I've got a bunch of throws friends who complain of a similar problem but at least they got to compete in Sydney while we had to go drive out to the middle of nowhere with unwieldy poles! But the problem was so bad across the whole sport of track and field that the coaches association was sending letters to every registered T&F coach in the state about the problem. I hope they fix it next year.

Anyway, that's enough ranting from me. To answer your question Becca, yes, it's a bit strange here! My question is why would they start at 3.40m? It wouldn't be to accommodate the guy at 3.40m - I know he jumps 3.80-4.00m... Funny that he didn't attempt anything higher too...
If the qualifying height for nationals was 3.60m we'd have to actually hold several flights!

At least they used large height increases, but it still seems like a waste of everyone's time, and a waste of money to send those athletes to the meet.

The NCAA used to have something like that where conference champions were guaranteed entry into the regional championships, a few conferences are particularly weak in the PV. But they still opened at the normal height.