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USD's Derek Miles Advances to the Pole Vault Finals at U.S. Olympic Trials

6/28/2008

U.S. Olympic Trials - Pole Vault Prelim Results

USD assistant track and field coach Derek Miles has advanced to the finals in the pole vault at the U.S. Olympic Trials which is being held this weekend in Eugene, Ore.
EUGENE, Ore. – Derek Miles, an assistant coach with The University of South Dakota track and field team, has advanced to the finals in the pole vault at the U.S. Olympic Trials being held in Eugene, Ore., this weekend.

Miles, competing for Nike, vaulted 18-0.5 in the prelims as he was one of 13 individuals to advance to the finals which will be held on Sunday. Brad Walker, who was born in Aberdeen, S.D., leads the competition with a vault of 18-4.5. Walker earlier this year set an American record by going 19'09.75 at the Nike Prefontaine Classic.

The pole vault finalists at the trials include eight vaulters who competed this winter at the Derek Miles and Friends Competition at the DakotaDome. They include Miles, Walker, Jacob Pauli, Jeff Hartwig, Toby “Crash” Stevenson, Tim Mack, Tye Harvey and Jeremy Scott.

Miles will now try and earn one of three spots on the U.S. Olympic Team men's pole vault squad, which will compete at The Games of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing, China, on August 8-24. NBC will carry a one-hour broadcast of the U.S. Olympic Trials on Sunday from 6-7 p.m.

Originally of Sacramento, Calif., Miles is trying to make the U.S. Olympic Team for the second straight time. He was a member of the 2004 Olympic Team and finished seventh in the pole vault at the Athens Olympics. Miles made the team in 2004 by finishing third at the trials with a vault of 19’0 ¼. He joined Tim Mack, who won the U.S. Trials at 19’4 ½, and Stevenson, who finished second, going 19’2 1/4.

Earlier in 2008, Miles won the Reno Pole Vault Summit (19'0.25) and the Drake Relays (18'09). He finished second at the Millrose Games (18'04).

In 2006 Miles was inducted into the Henry Heider Memorial Coyote Sports Hall of Fame. Miles earned a bachelor’s degree in history in 1996 and a master’s degree in athletic administration in 1998 from USD.

A Division II All-American, Miles was ranked fifth in the world at the end of the 2005 season. He was ranked #2 in the U.S. by Track and Field News in 2005.

Miles owns a personal best of 19-2.50 that he set at the DakotaDome in 2005, which was the seventh-best vault in the world that year. In 2003, he was the USA Indoor champion and was fifth at the World Outdoor competition.

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Ex-USD athlete aiming for Beijing
Pole vaulter's path to Olympics starts in Oregon
MICK GARRY • MGARRY@ARGUSLEADER.COM • JUNE 26, 2008
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As one of the world's top pole vaulters during the past eight years, Derek Miles has learned to harness some of the uncertainties inherent to this event.

But the 35-year-old former University of South Dakota athlete is a long way from having anything locked down when he tries to make his second straight Olympic team this week at the U.S. track and field trials in Eugene, Ore.

"The more wars you've been in, the better you can prepare yourself," Miles said. "But there's no way you really know what to expect. It could end up being more difficult this year to make the U.S. team than it is to medal (at the Olympics in Beijing)."



To demonstrate his worthiness as a challenger, Miles cleared 19 feet, 3/8 inch at the Prefontaine Classic last weekend in Eugene. That effort placed him second in the U.S. rankings for this year and tied for No. 7 in the world.

"We'd like to think there's a progression taking place here," said USD women's track coach Lucky Huber, who also is Miles' vault coach. "In 2000, he tied for third at the trials and lost in a jump-off. That year, his goal was just to get to the trials. In 2004, his goal was to make the team. Now, it's about taking the next step and bringing home a medal."

Miles, who finished seventh in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, will see old rivals as well as new ones as he attempts to crack the top three at the trials and represent his country in August. The pole vault qualifying round is Friday, with the finals scheduled for Sunday.

Foremost among U.S. vaulters who have risen to the elite level since 2004 is Brad Walker, who was born in Aberdeen and grew up in Washington state. He broke the U.S. record with a vault of 19-91/2 at the Prefontaine meet and has had the top vault in the world for three consecutive years.

"It's not often you think you vault really well, and you still lose by about a foot," said Miles, a USD assistant coach who graduated in 1996.

"Walker is in the zone right now. You can't think that you're going for one of the other two spots - you have to think you have a chance to win the thing. But I have to admit Brad is on another level at the moment, and if he jumps the way he's been jumping, the rest of us could be going for second."

Miles, a Sacramento, Calif., native, struggled with a stress fracture in his tibia in 2006 and eventually decided to correct the problem with a steel rod that remains in his leg.

"The tibia just did not want to heal," Miles said. "So we had to take what seemed at the time a drastic measure to get back on the runway."

An effort of 18 feet, 10 inches at the end of an abbreviated 2007 season made him think he'd made the right decision on that count, though the medical mending has made him a different kind of vaulter than he was four years ago.

"It's funny. I'm more sound technically now than I was four years ago, but not quite the same runner," he said. "I can be hot or a little cold. The question is in finding the right rhythm. My jump at the (Prefontaine) was the best jump over 19 I've ever had. I had some room there."

Because the pole vault stresses technique more than many other Olympic track and field events, competitors can maintain elite status for longer than many other athletes.

That means Miles is not conspicuous as a 35-year-old vaulter. Jeff Hartwig, who is 40, also will be at the trials, and several other top U.S. vaulters are older than 30.

Miles, under contract with Nike through 2009, is not thinking about the end of his career this month, but he knows it's looming in the distance.

"One of my biggest fears is that I would decide to retire knowing I've got better jumps in me," he said. "On the other hand, I don't want to linger when the sport has passed me by. It's difficult to think about something like that right now without diverting your focus, so I really haven't thought much about it lately."