Rob Yin (Grinnell) dies from PV injuries May 2010

[Getvertical_PV]

I am a student athletic trainer/EMT that was at the event and responded to Roberts fall. He landed on the turf.

Do you mean grass or track surface?

[jrohn20]

I am a student athletic trainer/EMT that was at the event and responded to Roberts fall. He landed on the turf.

Do you mean grass or track surface?

turf is artificial grass with granulated rubber flled into the blades of grass, it was the best spot he couldve landed besides the mats

[rainbowgirl28]

I remember being at a meet many years ago and the official state to a young man "You have come up short on you vault two times one more time and I will need to D.Q. you from the vault." I have often thought the official might have gotten some arguments from other coaches but I sure like his reasoning. He had enough "guts" to state a young mans safety was more important then meet points.

Unfortunately there is nothing in the rule book that actually gives the official that authority, but there is also nothing to stop an official from telling an athlete or coach that they are in danger and should change something.

[Getvertical_PV]

I am a student athletic trainer/EMT that was at the event and responded to Roberts fall. He landed on the turf.

Do you mean grass or track surface?

turf is artificial grass with granulated rubber filled into the blades of grass, it was the best spot he couldve landed besides the mats

yes, I would assume the same thing, but I was hoping to validate that assumption. In looking at the Live map, it would appear that you are correct.

http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v ... llege~pg.1

This almost makes it worse, if there was a reason (although I'm not trying to point blame) it would easier to move forward. This just seems to have been a horrible horrible day. Again, thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends.

[master]

Myself and others who were there have been wishing we had been more proactive during warm-ups and politely "coached" Rob with reminders of plant hand positioning so he would have driven into the pit as opposed to the side.

Perhaps something good can come from this terrible accident if all of use remember this comment. When we see a vaulter (or a coach) that needs some help either getting themselves vaulting safer, or finding a way to politely getting them to stop vaulting for the day.

[master]

Unfortunately there is nothing in the rule book that actually gives the official that authority, but there is also nothing to stop an official from telling an athlete or coach that they are in danger and should change something.

I thought there was a general rule that says an official has the authority to refuse to let an athlete participate in any event if they are a safety risk. I'll have to look a little. (On a side note, this is where having the rule book online in pdf form would be very useful. With a few attempts at a search, the computer could probably find it faster than me starting at the front of the book and reading page by page.)

[dj]

Good morning,

Speculation in any direction is not a good thing and in the case of a death we can’t let “speculation” rule the day.

I do know this young man was coached well..

We all can or will have “flaw’s”, especially at the plant, (world class included) that sets the physics in motion for a safe or dangerous result.

We pole vault, we hurdle, we fly a plane and drive a car, we take risk.. we hope that we get it right most of the time, and that the times we are on the edge we “correct” with a safe result.

Unfortunately some times we don’t.

Yes teaching proper technique and safety is at the top of the list… but sometimes it’s out of our hands and “second” guessing only helps us form solution for the future.

Like someone said looking forward is the only way to turn this tragedy to a positive for the future..

dj

[2-15-46]

Here are his stats, it looks like he just started vaulting this year, and has a best of 11'. I am guessing he was attempting 10'6 at the time of the accident.

http://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/A ... AID=710470

Sounds as if he was hanging too high and plant was bad thus throwing him to the far side of the pit... if it was his first year and the bar was a 10-6..

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 04642.html

Wootton remembers Robert Yin, who died from injuries he suffered while pole vaulting for Grinnell College


By Carl Little
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Dozens of students, alumni and coaches from Wootton High School gathered in the infield at the 4A West region track and field championships on Wednesday to remember Robert Yin, a 2008 Wootton graduate who died Monday from injuries sustained last week during a pole vault competition. Yin was a sophomore at Grinnell College in Iowa.

Before the meet started in Bethesda, Wootton Coach Kelli Redmond read a prepared statement. Her voice broke as her athletes sobbed next to her. Emotions ran so high that Redmond passed the microphone to assistant coach Steve Orders. Yin embodied "what it means to give the very best of ourselves to a sport and to a life that deserves no less," he read. A moment of silence was then observed.

"I hope I never have to do this again," Redmond said.

Yin, a sprinter and jumper while at Wootton, picked up pole vaulting when he arrived at Grinnell. He fell on Friday at the Midwest Conference Championships at Illinois College in Jacksonville, Ill. Peggy Brooks, an assistant coach at Illinois College, told the State-Journal Register that, after an awkward vault, Yin "kind of slid, grazed the mat and landed on his back." She said that wind and weather were not factors.

A campus gathering was held earlier this week at Grinnell, where Yin, a music major, was remembered with a song by the G-Tones, the all-male a cappella group of which he was a member, and a candle vigil.

Wootton athletes -- and athletes who knew Yin from other schools -- tied black ribbons with Yin's initials on them to their shoes on Wednesday. Some wore arm paint that said "run for Robert."

An outpouring of remembrances is posted on the Facebook group Rest In Peace Robert. One post came from a stranger who lost her son in a pole vaulting accident. Another comment read: "I didn't even know your name. . . . But you just sat with me as I cried my heart out. I don't think you ever knew that you saved my life."

Wootton senior Brian Campos, a team captain, said it was tough to be sad when Yin was around.

"His optimism was contagious," Campos said. "He's somebody I looked up to as a sophomore; I wanted to fill his shoes."

Yin's funeral will be May 29 at Christ Episcopal Church in Rockville.

[rk1405]

All pole vault accidents are tragic. I don't know any details of this accident other than what posts I've read. From what I've read it sounds like Rob may not have gotten his top hand above his head at take off. It's quite possible he had also moved his hand grip up. Holding higher will always amplify mistakes in technique. If this was indeed the case the higher grip may also put more bend on the pole than he could handle. I never allowed my vaulters to hold higher until they landed in the center of the pits directly behind the box and they had to be deep enough too (the center of the coaches box was always nice).

[rainbowgirl28]

Old article, but trying to update stuff in this forum:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/5593 ... story.html


Family of pole vaulter who died after track meet sues Illinois College
BY LISA DONOVAN Staff Reporter ldonovan@suntimes.com May 25, 2011 5:08PM

Updated: May 25, 2011 5:24PM

The mother of a college pole vaulter who died after he was injured during a Downstate track meet filed a wrongful death lawsuit Wednesday in Chicago.

Robert Yin, a native of Maryland and a sophomore at Iowa’s Grinnell College, was competing in a track meet at Illinois College in Jacksonville last May when he “attempted to clear 11 feet,” according to the lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court. But as he landed, “the mat in the landing pit collapsed under him,” the suit says.

“Robert Yin’s upper body was violently whipped off the collapsed mat towards the unprotected and uncovered area next to the mat,” the suit states. “[He] ... struck the back of his head on the ground.”

He died May 17th, 2010, in a Springfield hospital — three days after the meet.

Sandra G. Giger, the student’s mother, is now suing Illinois College, alleging the mats in the pit weren’t properly assembled.

She’s also suing Grinnell, alleging the school failed to prevent him from participating in the meet even though he had been having problems with his form and technique that “resulted in his landing to the right.” The suit states that those problems continued during his warm-up for the event in which he was injured and later died.

The suit also blames the school for allowing him to perform even though he had told his coach one of his arms hurt and that he was in pain. A few days before the Midwest Conference Track and Field Championships meet, he had also told his coach that he was feeling sick and was taking medications for his illness, the suit states.

“... Robert Yin was frequently throwing up, a recurring problem he had previously discussed with’’ the coach, the suit states.

The suit also alleges the school “[c]arelessly and negligently failed to provide adequate training and instruction in the fundamentals of the pole vault event.”

The suit states that while Yin was on the track team in high school, he had only begun to pole vault during the 2009-2010 school year.

Reached on Wednesday afternoon, a spokeswoman for Illinois College would not comment. A Grinnell spokeswoman said the school had not seen the suit and had no comment.

While Yin was a Grinnell student and the incident happened Downstate, the case was filed in Cook County Circuit Court because a foreign corporation — identified as Grinnell — is a defendant in the lawsuit, according to Giger’s attorney Joseph P. Shannon.

Shannon would not comment further on the case.

Yin’s mother is seeking more than $50,000 in damages.