WC Men Finals - What a competition!

[Peruviangirlvaulter]

Thanks to everyone for the posts, especially Becca! Had lots of fun! I had no other way to do "live streaming." You saved me!!

[old vaulter]

wow

just got into the office about 45 minutes ago and took the time to start from the beginning of the post and work my way thru all 24 pages...great job to all...sorry i missed it live !

[joebro391]

Who predicted Woj and Borges 1st and 2nd? I wasn't expecting that!!

I DID!!!!! that was the best competition I can remember!! sorry I wasn't apart of the discussion!! Thanks for all the posts and commentary!!! -6P

[ashcraftpv]

Thank you Becca for not spoiling the results in the thread title. I really enjoyed scrolling through all the posts.

[Cooleo111]

Thank you guys for the commentary...it was equally as good as the competition!! I watched everything until 5.90, but then had to duck out for a stupid grad class! If it happens again tomorrow I'm skipping!

[rainbowgirl28]

Boringest press release ever:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/pa ... story.html


Pawel Wojciechowski of Poland wins men’s pole vault at worlds, Borges 2nd with same height

By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, August 29, 6:47 AM

DAEGU, South Korea — Pawel Wojciechowski of Poland won the gold medal in the men’s pole vault at the world championships Monday.

Wojciechowski cleared 19 feet, 4¼ inches, the same as silver medalist Lazaro Borges of Cuba. He won because of fewer missed attempts.

Renaud Lavillenie of France took the bronze.

Defending world champion Steve Hooker did not qualify for the final.

[rainbowgirl28]

http://daegu2011.iaaf.org/newslistdetail.aspx?id=61536


Men's Pole Vault - Final - Wojciechowski’s tactical decision helps him snatch Pole Vault title


Pawel Wojciechowski of Poland wins the Pole Vaut final in Daegu (Getty Images)
29 August 2011 – Daegu, Korea - Poland's Pawel Wojciechowski was crowned World Pole Vault champion in a competition which in the preliminary round and then the final saw Steve Hooker and Romain Mesnil the 2009 gold and silver medallists eliminated.

Without a doubt Wojciechowski will be patting himself on the back after making the tactical decision after a first time failure at 5.85m to save his last two attempts for when it was raised a further five centimetres.

The foresight and outcome won him Poland's first ever men's Championship Pole Vault medal and came as an even bigger surprise than when Anna Rogowska triumphed for the European nation two years ago in Berlin.

Wojciechowski winner of this year's European U23 title beat off the challenges of his slightly older rival Cuba's Lazaro Borges 25, on count back with a shared height of 5.90m - both National records - while France's pre-event favourite Renaud Lavillenie finished third clearing 5.85m.

The 22-year-old champion has actually jumped higher but in a street meeting in Szczecin a fortnight ago where he cleared 5.91m which may have influenced his decision to sit out after his failure at 5.85m.

His surprise victory came after defending champion Hooker of Australia had failed to make a clearance in the previous day's preliminary round and then in the final Mesnil failed to ascend his opening height of 5.65m.

Their absence suggested Lavinellie the bronze medallist in that clash and who has been in great form this season currently leading the Samsung Diamond League overall standings for a second year, would become his country's first ever winner of the event.

After Mesnil's nightmare exit, Borges of Spain, the Polish pair of Lukasz Michalski and Pawel Wojciechowski who had entered at the start height 5.50 plus Lavillenie who came in at 5.65m, were the early leaders. Ten vaulters who had incurred at least one failure also remained in contention.

The bar raised to 5.75m then began to sort the men out from the boys with only three first time jumps achieved. Wojciechowski was first to get over and quickly followed by Malte Mohr currently second in the current SDL overall standings while Lavillenie then sailed over.

The conclusion at that height saw Wojciechowski and Lavinellie joint first with Germany's Mohr who had made one failure at 5.65m third. They were joined by Michalski and Konstadinos Filippidis - who equalled his Greek record - with their second attempts.

Borges with his third vault also matched his National record and escaped last chance saloon along with a third Pole Mateusz Didenko equalling his personal best.

The chase for the podium places now began in real earnest and Lavinellie maintaining his clean sheet went to the top of the leaderboard with his first effort at 5.85m.

He was followed by Michalski the recently crowned World Student Games champion setting a PB while Borges this time definitively raising his Cuban record while Mohr also progressed when looking at an unwanted exit from the medal chase.

Then attention focused again on Wojciechowski who had been a spectator for around 20 minutes. He messed up his first jump at 5.90m as did the other three remaining contenders for the gold medal.

But with his second attempt and remaining effort the fourth finisher in this year's European Indoor Championships was ecstatic after becoming the first to scale 5.90. Lavillenie wasn't up to the task but Borges seized his last chance and also went clear with his final effort.

The bar then went to 5.95m but neither the Polish winner or Cuban runner up could lift themselves to breaking into even more new territory.

David Martin for the IAAF

[stavhoppare]

Borges has the best TRAIL LEG ACTION AND INVERSION I have seen in a long, long, long time. The force he generates is great. He will jump much higher. All the others are tucking and that inhibits the hips from rising (ala Bubka, Isi) Borges taps the bottom like he is on a highbar doing Giants!!! Wonder what his mps are at the last 5 meters?

[rainbowgirl28]

Here is video of the 5.85 clearances of Borges, Lavillenie and Michalski http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJYUxI7p_FQ

[figgiesblazin]

For anybody still wishing to watch the whole French coverage, you can actually still watch it on their website, at

http://fr.justin.tv/la_cosa_nostra/b/293763558 (not sure exactly where in the video the vault starts)

followed by

http://fr.justin.tv/la_cosa_nostra/b/293768207

followed by

http://www.justin.tv/la_cosa_nostra/b/293769602

I was impressed how thorough the coverage was! Awesome!

[SweetPVJumps]

I quickly read through the updates this morning before I headed out, and I was actually holding my breath when I read through the last couple heights it was so exciting! thanks for the updates!

[rainbowgirl28]

http://daegu2011.iaaf.org//newslistdetail.aspx?id=61647


Tuesday, August 30, 2011
New Polish hero bracing for successful future

30 August 2011 - Daegu, Korea - As they sat side by side before the world media it would have been very difficult to determine which of the three vaulters had actually won the World Championship without first looking at the results. Their expressionless faces gave nothing away.

Renaud Lavillenie of France had been the clear favourite at the start of the day and could never have imagined the pair seated to his right would both clear the world leading height of 5.90m leaving him with only the bronze medal. He looked down at the table in disappointment.

The Cuban, Lazaro Borges, was likely dumbfounded he had jumped so well and still lost on the count back while the winner, Pawel Wojciechowski, appeared very uncomfortable in the limelight.

“I am scared a little bit,” the 22-year-old from Bydgoszcz, Poland admitted. “Now I must learn to live with this. I think it will be terrible.”

Wojciechowski smiled at his choice of words. He hadn’t been a World champion for more than an hour and he was pondering just how life changing the experience could be.

“I still live with my family but now I think things could change,” he reveals. “I live with my parents and my grandpa and I have an older brother. My mother works in a shop and my father is a postman, normal family things. Now I might live together with my girlfriend.”

The $60,000 USD first place prize money courtesy of the IAAF is one thing. There could be other financial bonuses also. As World champion he may command bigger pay cheques from meeting directors. And, let’s not forget that he will be celebrated widely across Poland in the tradition of other national Pole Vault heroes like 1980 Olympic champion, Wladyslaw Kozakiewicsz, for example. The worried look was also compounded by fatigue.

“I knew that I was close to winning,” he recalls. “I was so exhausted so I didn’t want to jump anymore. I wanted the competition to be over. But I still fought and at 5.95m it was really really close. I believe I can jump higher next season. Six metres, maybe. Maybe more.”

There’s much for the World champion to think about. A year ago he had a modest personal best of 5.60m but he had been touted as a potential world class vaulter ever since he captured the 2008 World Junior silver medal in his home town of Bydgoszcz. Everything clicked at the beginning of 2011 and he cleared 5.71m to finish 4th at the European Indoor Championships and also hit a huge indoor personal best with 5.86m at the Flanders Indoor meeting in Gent, Belgium. That performance broke the Polish national record held by Miroslaw Chmara for more than twenty years.

“I make training six days a week, one session a day,” he explains. “Sometimes it’s three and a half hours and sometimes it’s two hours.”

His coach Wlodzimierz Michalski explains the rapid improvement on technical changes. Together they decided to increase Wojcieshowski’s run-up from fourteen strides to sixteen during the indoor season and also started using heavier poles.

While his focus is completely on vaulting he has other interests that keep his life in check.

“I like fishing,” he says. “It relaxes me. I do this every free moment. It’s my biggest hobby. I have a big garden around the home and I go there at 3:00 am and wake up and go fishing. Sometimes I fish in the river near my home for a fish - I don’t know what it is in English. Do you know muskie? It’s smaller in Poland. I also meet every day with my girlfriend. Maybe now we can live together.”

What lies ahead is potentially more demands on his time, more competition invitations and most burdensome of all the expectation that comes with winning a World championship in a pre-Olympic year. It’s all very much for the young man.

“I really don’t know,” he says. “It’s too much for one day. I can't believe that I am World champion I can’t think now about the Olympic Games yet. I want to train like I did for today and it should be a good result.

“I know that now I can go to sleep until dawn. I cannot sleep today. I have a problem with the change in the time zones. I couldn’t sleep every night.”

Wojciechowski should sleep peacefully with his gold medal safely ensconced in his possession.

Paul Gains for the IAAF