Is this Box legal/safe?

[Tincup1215]

My friend called me up yesterday after he had a track meet at a local high school. He sent me this picture of the school's pole vault box and said it was quite "janky".

We have our conference meet at this school in 3 weeks. The screws that are jutting out, I'm worried about it damaging the sail piece and potentially breaking our poles the week before our Sectional. I have a 15' vaulter and a 13'7 vaulter.

[DLM]

as I look at the photo it is hard to tell but is that dirt at the bottom, that is to say is the bottom rusted out if so that in itself would make it unsafe as far as I would be concurred. yes the screws should be made flush and the top of the box seems to have a flat or at least a hard edge which also could cause a problem for a pole if your vaulters have enough bend in the pole and rotate over to fare on a jump and get to deep. that being said is there any way to address these issues ( use another pit, bring over a raised runway, replace the box.) remember it is a sport and not worth the life or welfare of the athlete.

[Tincup1215]

That's dirt, a lot of dirt. There other box on the opposite end of the runway is good, but I don't want to play the luck game and hope it's not a headwind. They do have a fieldhouse with a box inside, but there's a curtain that hangs directly over the pit (about 16') and my kid is going to hit it.

My high school is 20 minutes away and we have 2 boxes in excellent shape, but I doubt they'd let us hold pole vault at my facility and have the rest of the meet at the other high school.

[DLM]

They might if you point out your concern, and have other coaches with the same opinion and concerns speak up . It's worth a shoot. We need coaches like yourself that keep their eyes open and try to manage the risks in this event for the athletes we coach. Good luck and keep it safe

[Bjack6635@gmail.com]

Im gonna say that the fact that the screws look like there not flush is reason enough not to use the box. we use tape and pvc to protect our poles from good boxes i can only imagine what would happen if a pole caught one of those screws mid rotation.