ISTAF Berlin PV on Sunday Sep 6th includes all 5 WC 2015 Medalists!

[KirkB]

This should be a great event, with all 5 WC medalists entered!

http://www.istaf.de/en/0/index.html (Look here for the Startlist and Results too.)

All five medallists from World Championships in Peking: ISTAF set for unprecedented pole-vault showdown!

The Internationales Stadionfest in Berlin (ISTAF) has never had a pole-vault competition like it! All five medallists from the World Championships in Peking will be converging on Berlin for the world’s oldest and best-attended athletics meeting on 6th September. The line-up will include the surprise world champion Shawnacy Barber (Canada), the Peking silver medallist Raphael Holzdeppe (Zweibrücken), world record holder Renaud Lavillenie (France) and Piotr Lisek and Pawel Wojciechowski from Poland, who took bronze with vaults that equalled the height cleared by Lavillenie. The men’s pole vault in Peking’s Olympic stadium was a thrilling competition with an unforeseen outcome. Few experts would have predicted that the French supremo, Lavillenie, would once again be thwarted in his bid for his first World Championship gold, such had been the strength of his appearances so far this season, with two 6-metre vaults. Yet after clearing 5.80m at his first attempt he failed three times with the bar at 5.90m, a height which Shawnacy Barber vaulted in one go and title holder Raphael Holzdeppe in two attempts. Neither managed 6 metres. And now they are all pitching up for the re-match at the 74th ISTAF in Berlin.

Will Lavillenie redeem himself in this rematch with Barber?

What order will they finish in this time?

What's your predictions?

I'll go with:

1. Shawn Barber (he's still unbeatable!)
2. Renaud Lavillenie (just because)
3. Piotr Lisek (looked good in Beijing and Zurich)
4. Sam Kendricks (if he's entered. He's due for a big jump.)
5. Pawel Wojciechowski (or Robert Sobera, the 3rd of the Polish trio)
6. Kevin Menaldo (if he's entered. He cleared 5.80 on his 3rd try in Beijing, but missed out on the bronze.)
7. Raphael Holzdeppe (inconsistent lately - he can't seem to clear the higher bars on 1st attempt)

Kirk

[KirkB]

From http://www.istaf.de/en/0/starterliste.html

Startlist (10 competitors, listed in SB order):

Last Name First Name Cnry Birth PB SB Achievements
1. LAVILLENIE Renaud FRA 1986 6.05 m 6.05 m 3.WCH`15; 1.ECH`14; 2.WCH`13; 1.OG`12; 1.ECH`12; 1.WIC`12
2. HOLZDEPPE Raphael GER 1989 5.94 m 5.94 m 2.WCH`15; 1.GCH`15; 1.WCH`13; 3.OG`12; 3.ECH`12
3. BARBER Shawnacy CAN 1994 5.93 m 5.93 m 1.WCH`15; 3.WJC`12
4. FILIPPÍDIS Konstadínos GRE 1986 5.91 m 5.91 m 7.ECH`14; 1.WIC`14; 10.WCH`13; 7.OG`12
5. WOJCIECHOWSKI Pawel POL 1989 5.91 m 5.84 m 3.WCH`15; 2.ECH`14; 1.WCH`11
6. LISEK Piotr POL 1992 5.82 m 5.82 m 3.WCH`15; 6.ECH`14
7. MÉNALDO Kévin FRA 1992 5.81 m 5.81 m 6.WCH`15; 3.ECH`14
8. PAECH Carlo GER 1992 5.80 m 5.80 m 7q2.WCH`15; 3.GCH`15; 2.WYC`09
9. CHIARAVIGLIO Germán ARG 1987 5.75 m 5.75 m 9.WM`15; 1.WJC`06
10. SOBERA Robert POL 1991 5.80 m 5.70 m 15.WCH`15; 4.WJC`10

This entry list includes all vaulters in the World Best 2015 list (which you can see at the same link), with the exception of:

4. Thiago da Silva BRAZIL 5.92
7. Sam Kendricks USA 5.82
7. Michael Balner CZECH 5.82

Competitors NOT in the World Best 2015 list are PAECH, CHIARAVIGLIO, and SOBERA.

This is a great collection of vaulters, with the top 7 already over 5.81+ this year!

PV starts at 16:40 Berlin time (GMT+2). This is 7:40 PDT, but I'm not aware of any live feeds. Please post if you know of any.

It seems that video cameras aren't allowed in the stadium.

Kirk

[KirkB]

Sorry, the list above appears to be in SB order.

This list (from http://www.iaaf.org/competitions/iaaf-world-challenge/istaf-berlin-internationales-stadionfest-be-5617/results/men/pole-vault/final/startlist#resultheader) is in competition order (true Startlist order):

ATHLETE COUNTRY SB 2015 PB
Shawnacy BARBER CAN CAN 5.93 5.93
Germán CHIARAVIGLIO ARG ARG 5.75 5.75
Konstadínos FILIPPÍDIS GRE GRE 5.91 5.91
Raphael Marcel HOLZDEPPE GER GER 5.94 5.94
Renaud LAVILLENIE FRA FRA 6.05 6.16i
Piotr LISEK POL POL 5.90i 5.90i
Kévin MÉNALDO FRA FRA 5.81 5.81
Carlo PAECH GER GER 5.80 5.80
Robert SOBERA POL POL 5.81i 5.81i
Pawel WOJCIECHOWSKI POL POL 5.84 5.91

Kirk

[KirkB]

Surprisingly low results for the vaulters today, according to http://www.iaaf.org/competitions/iaaf-world-challenge/istaf-berlin-internationales-stadionfest-be-5617/results/men/pole-vault/final/result:

POS ATHLETE COUNTRY MARK
1 Piotr LISEK POL POL 5.74
2 Konstadínos FILIPPÍDIS GRE GRE 5.74
3 Shawnacy BARBER CAN CAN 5.64
4 Pawel WOJCIECHOWSKI POL POL 5.54
5 Raphael Marcel HOLZDEPPE GER GER 5.44
6 Carlo PAECH GER GER 5.24
Kévin MÉNALDO FRA FRA NM
Robert SOBERA POL POL NM
Germán CHIARAVIGLIO ARG ARG NM
Renaud LAVILLENIE FRA FRA NM

According to http://static.sportresult.com/federations/iaaf/liveStats/index.html?app=AT_PROD&event=Berlin2015&lng=de, RL missed twice at 5.54, then passed to 5.64 (after 4 vaulters cleared 5.54 on 1st or 2nd attempts).

All others cautiously started at 5.24, except for Lisek, Holzdeppe, and Sober who started at 5.44. This back-fired on Sober (NM), and almost backfired on Holzdeppe, who cleared it on his 3rd attempt.

Winner Piotr Lisek was quoted as saying "It was not that easy today, as we had to fight with a strong wind."

Even if a bad wind, it looks like RL started too high. This is the second meet in a row where he appears to have made a bad tactical decision by not taking the right pole out of his bag to vault under the meet conditions.

Kirk

[KirkB]

From http://www.iaaf.org/competitions/iaaf-world-challenge/news/berlin-istaf-2015-sharp-amos-klaas:

The men’s pole vault was billed as one of the headline events of the meeting as it featured all five medallists from the recent World Championships. But it didn’t quite live up to expectation as world record-holder Renaud Lavillenie failed to clear a height, Germany’s world silver medallist Raphael Holzdeppe got over just his opening bar, and world champion Shawn Barber had one of his lowest finishes this season, placing third with 5.64m.

In among those disappointments, joint world bronze medallist Piotr Lisek came away with the victory with 5.74m, winning on count-back from world indoor champion Konstadinos Filippidis.

Kirk

[canag]

Video of the PV competition: https://youtu.be/ni48AcTfSoU
Strong head wind, it appears...
My flawed german skills lead me to understand more or less that the anchorman confirms Kirk's value of 5.38 poles (17'7) for Shawn Barber.

[KirkB]

Thanks Canag.

Every miss that I saw on the vid were stall-outs (all vaulters), and (based on the red flag waving) there was an intermittent head-wind.

This begs the question "Why didn't they turn the pit around?"

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the pros don't get paid unless they clear a height. But perhaps RL gets an appearance fee?

Pardon me for stating the obvious, but ...

Leading up to the 2016 Olympics in Rio, the medalists will be the ones that adjust to weather conditions the best - not necessarily the vaulters with the highest PBs or SBs.

Lavillenie still has lots to learn about this, and so does Barber and Holzdeppe.

Kirk