Olympics!! How to watch/follow in the USA

[rainbowgirl28]

We are 20 minutes away from the start of the pole-vault at the OLYMPICS!!!

First up is the qualifying round of the men's pole vault. There are 32 competitors, and they are trying to get that down to about 12. The auto height for finals is 5.75.

Live X's and O's will be here: https://www.iaaf.org/competitions/olymp ... list/22678

There will be two live streams on the NBC Olympics site: http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/track-and-field

A cable or satellite log in is required. If you have neither, and are wiling to pay $30, sign up for Playstation Vue (no Playstation required) and the log in for that can be used to access the live feeds.

And of course you can follow along with me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/polevaultpower

[Cooleo111]

Anyone watching?? Cunningham BLEW UP 5.30 on his third attempt! And it looks like Marek Arents has a tennis ball over his pole tip??

[Mecham]

Watching now. Thoughts on performances so far?

p.s. Long time no see!

[hardflex]

i watched the nbcolympics stream and the iaaf live results page on my phone to keep up with both groups. I was disappointed to see Wojek go out as he could have been a factor in the finals.

Looks like Lavillinie, Barber, and Kendricks for top 3,

[Cooleo111]

One of the weaker finals lately IMHO. I'm going with Lavillenie, Kendricks and Da Silva respectively. I think a lot of the failures in prelims had to do with wind conditions, and I suspect the same will be true for the final. Renaud and Sam are consistent regardless, but the rest of the field is sketchy.

[Decamouse]

/at the rate the standards keep breaking may not finish tonight

[fx]

Wow! To come in as an underdog against the world record holder, then set a personal best in the olympics in your home country for the gold medal. What a competition.

[Hoorah]

Why the pass?

[hardflex]

Why the Pass?, I guess you mean Braz at 5.98. When RL cleared it put Braz behind on misses, so jumping the 5.98 bar would still put him in 2nd.

RL looked sharp, he was jumping great. He was clearly rattled when Braz cleared 6.03 otherwise I think He'd have made it himself.

Kendricks had some great attempts at 5.93.

There seemed to be a lot of stallouts over the bar. Don't know if that was wind or just rushing jumps because of the competition pressures.

Will it take 5.95 or more to win major meets from here out?

[KirkB]

There seemed to be a lot of stallouts over the bar. Don't know if that was wind or just rushing jumps because of the competition pressures.

It's hard to criticize the best in the world, but I noticed that too. My guess is that the vaulters that didn't have enough forwards momentum (those that stalled) simply had too high of a grip or too stiff of a pole. They're trying to get every cm out of every jump, and for some reason, they believe that this is the way to do it.

I disagree with this (if that's what they're thinking). Horizontal momentum, and not having to worry about clearing the bar both on the way up and on the way down is *so* important. And being able to confidently extend as much (and as quickly) as possible is also *so* important.

I've made these comments many times before - but mostly re younger, less experienced vaulters that have this same issue. Strangely, even some the best in the world don't grasp this concept.

Kirk

[KirkB]

Did you all notice how early Da Silva released his pole? Amazing!

What other vaulter did that remind you of?

I've never seen such POWER generated in the bottom half of the vault since ... well, you know.

Kirk

[PV-ATL]

Kirk,

If Braz reminds you of "You Know Who", know this: His Coach is Vitaly Petrov. We know now that there is no coincidence!

I also noticed his technical aspects. I also saw him go for congratulations from the big guy himself after the meet was won.

Will there now be a resurgence and conversion to the P-B model? Will there be a rush for more copies of "Beginner to Bubka" books and videos? I certainly hope so!

Cheers,

PV-ATL