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Okay so my school buys me a brand new pole (I'm not going to say the brand on here) and I practice with it a couple days before the big state competition down in LaCrosse. I only did like 5 vaults with that pole because i was still using my old one. It was a 11' 140lb pole and i was under 140 pounds. Then the day of state where we pole vault comes and i do a few runs (like 3) with my new pole. I had to run the 4x100 relay finals so i went and did that and came back to vault at 9'6'', a height which i had cleared all year. i used my new pole, first attempt, and i did everything the same that i had with my old pole, but as i left the ground my pole snapped and i did a backflip into the mat. my brand new pole had snapped in 2 for no reason. I'm not quite sure what happened but i never stepped on my pole or anything like that. We complained to the company and even sent them the tape of when my pole broke and they are still not even considering paying for some of the pole or replacing it. I think this is way unfair and i dont know what else to do about it. Oh i ended up going out at 9'6'' because my old pole wasnt enough. comments? suggestions?? anything??

i dont' know much about poles, but if it was over stressed, i believe it is designed to break in thirds......that leads me to believe that somebody stepped on your pole, or it was damaged in shipping........


If you read the stuff that comes with the poles, it says that you should inspect the pole every time before you vault.....did you ever do that?

Would it be possible for you to post that video for us to see?

VaultMarq26 wrote:i dont' know much about poles, but if it was over stressed, i believe it is designed to break in thirds......that leads me to believe that somebody stepped on your pole, or it was damaged in shipping........

If you read the stuff that comes with the poles, it says that you should inspect the pole every time before you vault.....did you ever do that?

Well if it was damaged in shipping wouldn't it have broken earlier when i first used it? And no my coach never showed me any of the papers that came with the pole. Another coach from another school in our area (the place where i vaulted before the state competition) saw the pole and stuff so i dont think anything was wrong with it before, but who knows.

Also I'll have to see if I can get the video first, then ill see if i can post it on here.

Would it have been possible that you might have "spiked" the pole as you went up on that attempt ???? Poles have NO warranty - period. If your school purchased that pole from a local supplier they MIGHT consider replacing it if your school does a LOT of business with them. Just a chance. I'd almost bet that you were tired after your race, steps were off and jumped "under" on your runnup thus over-loading your pole causing it to break.

VaultMarq26 wrote:i dont' know much about poles, but if it was over stressed, i believe it is designed to break in thirds......

an 11' 140? I doubt it. It seems too short. I can see how 16' poles could break in three, but with my experience, out of all the poles I've broken (6 ) only one broke into more than 2 pieces...but we can't really count that since it was a Catapole from the 70's, which shattered into 7 pieces....

hey i know what feeling of like 7 peices of pole flying away! haha that was a fun break! haha scary as a mofo but all of them are

1yeldud1 wrote:Would it have been possible that you might have "spiked" the pole as you went up on that attempt ???? Poles have NO warranty - period. If your school purchased that pole from a local supplier they MIGHT consider replacing it if your school does a LOT of business with them. Just a chance. I'd almost bet that you were tired after your race, steps were off and jumped "under" on your runnup thus over-loading your pole causing it to break.

Well i would think i would have felt myself "spike" my pole or something and the tape doesnt show me doing that. if i would have felt that i would have stopped. I could have overloaded it like you said but i think my steps were pretty close to right on. i dont know its hard to tell. on the tape-as soon as my pole breaks the camera person points the camera down, for some reason. im going to try and get it so i can put it on here.

If you spiked the pole on the last vault you took on that pole all it would have taken is a scratch to weaken the fibers -- once they are weakened they will break with out warning. I have seen many kids stand on the sidelines of the vault and with out thinking put their feet on the poles and rock back and forth - not real smart. Hitting a standard or falling in the box are also 2 ways to ruin a pole really quick