Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's pole vault
| Men's pole vault at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Venue | Beijing National Stadium | ||||||||||||
| Date |
20 August 2008 (qualification) 22 August 2008 (final) | ||||||||||||
| Competitors | 38 from 25 nations | ||||||||||||
| Winning height | 5.96 OR | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
The men's pole vault at the 2008 Summer Olympics took place on 20 and 22 August at the Beijing National Stadium.[1]
The qualifying standards were 5.70 m (18.7 ft) (A standard) and 5.55 m (18.21 ft) (B standard).[2]
Records
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:
| World record |  | 6.14 m A | Sestriere, Italy | 31 July 1994 |
| Olympic record |  | 5.95 m | Athens, Greece | 27 August 2004 |
A new Olympic record was set during this competition.
| Date | Event | Athlete | Height | OR | WR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 August | Final |  | 5.96 m | OR |
Summary
Eight men were still in the competition at 5.70m. Yevgeny Lukyanenko and Denys Yurchenko cleared it on their first attempt. Derek Miles and Dmitry Starodubtsev cleared on their second, but Miles had the advantage because Starodubtsev took two additional attempts at 5.45m. Danny Ecker made it on his last attempt. Yurchenko would take no more attempts. Igor Pavlov passed to 5.75m and Steven Hooker continued to pass having only taken one jump in the entire competition. Only Ecker and Pavlov chose to jump at 5.75m, neither of them making it. At 5.80m, Lukyanenko was the only one to make it on his first attempt to take the lead. Miles and Starodubtsev couldn't clear the bar, but Hooker made his final attempt. At 5.85m, neither man made their first two attempts but each made their final attempt to advance to 5.90m. Again neither could clear on their first two attempts. On his final attempt, Hooker peaked in front of the bar, but was able to jackknife over the bar to make the clearance. On his final attempt, Lukyanenko brushed the bar off giving Hooker the gold. But the show wasn't over as Hooker had the bar raised to 5.96 m (19 ft 61⁄2 in) for a new Olympic record. For the fourth height in a row, Hooker missed his first two attempts, but sailed cleanly over the bar on his final attempt. After 13 attempts in the competition, Hooker stood in the middle of the pit and flexed his muscles. More than eight years after the competition, Yurchenko's doping sample was retested and he was found to have dehydrochlormethyltestosterone in his system. Yurchenko was disqualified, giving Miles a delayed bronze medal.
Results
Qualifying round
Qualifying performance 5.75 (Q) or at least 12 best performers (q) advance to the Final.
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Final
Key
- o = Height cleared
- x = Height failed
- – = Height passed
- r = Retired
- SB = Season's best
- PB = Personal best
- NR = National record
- AR = Area record
- OR = Olympic record
- WR = World record
- WL = World lead
- NM = No mark
- DNS = Did not start
- DQ = Disqualified
| Rank | Name | Nationality | 5.45 | 5.60 | 5.70 | 5.75 | 5.80 | 5.85 | 5.90 | 5.96 | Result | Notes[3] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Steven Hooker | | – | o | – | – | xxo | xxo | xxo | xxo | 5.96 | OR |
 | Yevgeny Lukyanenko |  | – | xxo | o | – | o | xxo | xxx | 5.85 | ||
 | Derek Miles | | o | xxo | xo | – | xxx | 5.70 | ||||
| 4 | Dmitry Starodubtsev | | xxo | xxo | xo | – | xxx | 5.70 | ||||
| 5 | Danny Ecker |  | xo | – | xxo | xxx | 5.70 | |||||
| 6 | Jérôme Clavier |  | xo | o | xxx | 5.60 | ||||||
| 7 | Raphael Holzdeppe | | o | xo | xxx | 5.60 | ||||||
| 8 | Igor Pavlov | | – | xxo | – | xxx | 5.60 | |||||
| 9 | Jan Kudlička |  | o | xxx | 5.45 | |||||||
| 10 | Przemysław Czerwiński |  | xo | xxx | 5.45 | |||||||
| – | Giuseppe Gibilisco |  | xxx | NM | ||||||||
| – | Leonid Andreev |  | xxx | NM | ||||||||
| DQ | Denys Yurchenko | | xxo | xo | o | 5.70 |
- Denys Yurchenko of Ukraine originally finished third, but in November 2016, it was announced that he tested positive for dehydrochlormethyltestosterone.[1]
References
- 1 2 "Olympic Athletics Competition Schedule". IAAF. Archived from the original on 13 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-04.
- ↑ "Entry Standards - The XXIX Olympic Games - Beijing, China - 8/24 August 2008". IAAF. Archived from the original on 13 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-04.
- ↑ "Olympic Games 2008 - Pole Vault M Final". IAAF. Archived from the original on 24 August 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-22.