The pole vault is a track and field event that requires the vaulter to use a long flexible pole made of either carbon fiber or fiberglass to jump over a bar. It is one of the rare games perhaps seen only in big competitions because of the sophisticated equipment it requires.
It is one of the four jumping events that includes the high jump, triple jump, and long jump. Some of pole vaulting's elite players are known to have gymnastics backgrounds.
Do you want to know more about some of the best pole vault athletes? Read on to learn more about them.
Serhiy Nazarovych Bubka
Born on December 4, 1963 in Ukraine, Serhiy is one famous vaulter that deserves to be on this list. He represented the Soviet Union until it was dissolved in 1991.
Twice, he was named by Track & Field News as the Athlete of the Year. In 2012, Bubka was selected among the 24 athletes to join the Hall of Fame of the International Association of Athletics Federations.
He is one athlete to have won six IAAF World Championships consecutively and an Olympic medal. Bubka broke the world record for men’s pole vault 35 times, and he was also the first vaulter to clear 6.0 and 6.10 meters.
Other Achievements of Bubka
In 1993, Bubka held the indoor world record of 6.15 meters. This was set in Donetsk, Ukraine and Bubka held the record till France’s Renaud Lavillenie who cleared 6.16 meters in 2014.
Bubka won Prince of Asturias sports Award in 1991. He also was awarded the Soviet Union best sportsman for three years consecutively from 1984 through 1986.
Bubka was voted by the L’Equipe newspaper as the Sportsman of the Year in 1997. In 2001, he was designated an IAAF council member and elected Vice President of the same organization for four years.
Maksim Tarasov
Maksim, a Russian Vaulter holds the national Pole Vault record with 6.05 results that he got in 1996. Born in Yaroslavl, Soviet Union in 1970, Maksim represented USSR, the unified team and Russia later.
His best jump is 6.05 meters that put him in the fourth slot of all-time performers list. Also, Maksim was the surprise Gold medalist during the 1992 Olympics.
He was representing the Unified Team over Sergey Bubka, A favorite Ukrainian teammate that missed all the final attempts. During the 2000 Olympics, Maksim represented Russia and won a Bronze medal. He left the competition in 2001 due to a serious injury.
Dmitri Markov
Born on March 14, 1975 in Vitebsk, Byelorussian SSR, Dmitri is an Australian and Belarusian retired pole vaulter. He is the current Oceanian record holder and former world champion.
He made history in 2001 when he made the gold medal winning jump that made him the third person ever to clear 6.05 meters. Having fallen out with his home country, Belarus, Dmitri moved to Australia and was given citizenship in 1999.
He set a pole vault Oceanic record with 5.95 meters after having jumped 6.00 meters in 1998 while playing for Belarus. Later, he improved the Oceanic record to 6.05 meters, becoming the third person to clear that height in history.
This made him the 2001 World Championships winner though his best performance was in 2000 where he completed fifth. Markov’s last major competition was in the Melbourne Commonwealth Games where he cleared a 5.60 m vault that won him a silver medal.
Conclusion
There are a number of great pole vault athletes that have won a number of World championships. These Athletes use many techniques at various levels to clear the bar at the highest height.
