Renaud Lavillenie (6.02m CR) and Jenn Suhr (4.90m) Claim Pole Vault Titles to Open 2016 World Indoor Championships

By LetsRun.com
March 17, 2016

PORTLAND, Ore. — The 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships kicked off with the men’s and women’s pole vault on Thursday night at the Oregon Convention Center as Olympic champs Jenn Suhr and Renaud Lavillenie showed they have every intention of retaining their crowns in Rio by earning World Indoor titles. Suhr cleared 4.90 meters — the same height she soared over at last week’s U.S. champs at the same venue — to earn her first World Indoor gold and setting a new championship record. Lavillenie took his World Indoor title haul to two (he also won in 2012) by establishing a new championship record of 6.02 meters, the highest indoor mark ever achieved on U.S. soil.

Results and quick takes below.

Lavillenie celebrates a new meet record. © Getty Images for IAAF

Men’s pole vault

Renaud Lavillenie took his first attempt over two hours after the competition began — 9:07 p.m., to be precise (just after midnight on the East Coast) but his performance tonight was worth the wait. Lavillenie required only two easy clearances to clinch his second world indoor title, and after taking down Steve Hooker’s championship record (6.02 meters), he took three exciting attempts at the world record.

American Sam Kendricks was perfect through four attempts but missed his first at 5.85 and his final two after passing to 5.90. That was still good enough for silver, a nice improvement on his ninth-place finish at World outdoors last year. Poland’s Piotr Lisek took the bronze.

POS	BIB	ATHLETE	COUNTRY	MARK	DETAIL	5.40	5.55	5.65	5.75	5.80	5.85	5.90	6.02	6.17
1	206	Renaud LAVILLENIE	FRA	6.02	CR	–	–	–	O	–	–	O	O	XXX
2	386	Sam KENDRICKS	USA	5.80		O	O	O	–	O	X-	XX
3	312	Piotr LISEK	POL	5.75		–	O	XO	O	XX-	X
4	170	Jan KUDLICKA	CZE	5.75		O	–	XXO	XXO	XXX
4	143	Shawnacy BARBER	CAN	5.75		–	O	XXO	XXO	XX-	X
6	314	Robert SOBERA	POL	5.65		O	–	O	XXX
7	230	Konstadínos FILIPPÍDIS	GRE	5.65		XO	O	XO	XXX
8	366	Mike ARNOLD	USA	5.65		O	XXO	XXO	XXX
9	166	Michal BALNER	CZE	5.55		O	O	XXX
10	261	Seito YAMAMOTO	JPN	5.55		XO	O	XXX
10	224	Carlo PAECH	GER	5.55		XO	O	XXX
12	202	Jérôme CLAVIER	FRA	5.55		O	XO	XXX
12	134	Thiago Braz DA SILVA	BRA	5.55		–	XO	–	XX-	X
14	135	Augusto Dutra DE OLIVEIRA	BRA	5.40		XO	XXX

Quick Take #1: We Like Opening with a Pole Vault But 3 Hours and 15 Minutes is Too Long

We applaud the IAAF for trying new things and starting World Indoors with the pole vault competition. However, it lasted way too long. The women’s competition was manageable and ended in about 2 hours.

Lavillenie eventually took world record attempts after 10 p.m., but when he took them people in attendance had already left.

The IAAF needs to come up with a new format for the vault or pare the field down to about 8 finalists if they want fans to stick around.

As for the crowd, there were some empty seats (we heard last week that more tickets had been sold/given away for opening night than there were seats. For example fans of the Portland Timbers had the opportunity to get free tickets and two free beers), but there were also 300+ high school kids sitting on the track watching. So the place was nearly full. However, at times, the crowd was waiting for something exciting to happen and some felt they had had enough before it was over.

If an event like this is going to be done in the future, the IAAF should not use its traditional announcers. It should go watch a rodeo or circus and get one of their announcers. Those guys build up excitement and don’t just let the action on the track speak for itself. That is what announcers at nearly all professional sports events do these days, at least in the United States.

Quick Take #2: Thumbs Up For Renaud Lavillenie Putting On A Show For The Fans In Oregon

Lavillenie laughs off his terrifying fall. © Getty Images for IAAF

The atmosphere in the stadium during his last four jumps was electric and made it well worth the wait. The crowd went crazy when he went over the 6.02 MR as the music blared and strobe lights started flashing to celebrate the new mark. Then everyone was really into Lavillenie’s world record attempts, giving him a thunderous slow-clap buildup for all three jumps. The anticipation of watching him fly down the runway, sitting there wondering if we were about to witness history, was riveting and exactly what track and field is about. The guy almost did a faceplant from 20 feet in the air on his second attempt, and still went for a third one. Guts, baller, badass, whatever you want to call it, it was great entertainment and Lavillenie deserves some props for going for it.

On the other hand, we would have loved if Jenn Suhr had done the same on the women’s side. Especially considering she was competing in front of the home crowd, we can only imagine what the fans would have been like for her attempts. Sadly, we will never know.

Video with Lavillenie

Quick Take #3: Big Thumbs Down To Whatever Idiot Was Picking The Music On Lavillenie’s Second World Record Attempt

As we mentioned above, Lavillenie’s second attempt involved a terrifying, possibly deadly fall from 20 feet in the air when he fell from straight up and almost missed the mat. Coincidentally (or maybe not?), rather than the pump-up music that had been playing over the loud speakers for every single jump of the night, whoever was up there thought it would be funny to play the sound of a ticking clock as Lavillenie’s time to take his attempt ran down (for the record he still had plenty of time with over two minutes on the clock when he started his run-up).

Not cool and not funny. The man was trying to vault higher than any human being ever has and someone decided to make a joke of it and possibly put extra stress on Lavillenie as he tried to psych himself up for the attempt. We propose a new rule banning the sound of ticking clocks or the Jeopardy theme song from playing over stadium speakers when athletes are trying to throw themselves 20 feet in the air.

Quick Take #4: Sam Kendricks gets it

Kendricks vaulted superbly tonight, but he also deserves praise for taking full advantage of competing on his home stage. None of the vaulters had asked for crowd support until Kendricks implored them to begin rhythmically clapping on his first attempt at 5.55 meters. Having had nothing to do for close to an hour and craving a way to become involved, the crowd responded instantaneously.

Later, Kendricks watched Lavillenie’s attempts at the world record with the fans invited to watch the event on the first turn of the track, chatting and allowing them to sign his pole.

“I appreciate you guys so much,” Kendricks told the fans after earning his silver medal.

Hosting a world championships is a rare opportunity; hopefully Kendricks’ crowd-friendly performance tonight earned him a few more fans.

Video interview with Kendricks:

Your medalists. © Getty Images for IAAF

Women’s pole vault

Last week at USAs, 4.90 meters was only good enough for second for Jenn Suhr as Sandi Morris produced the best performance of her life to clear 4.95 (the fifth-highest clearance ever indoors). But 4.90 was all Suhr needed tonight to earn the first World Indoor title of her career, going a perfect four-for-four (4.60, 4.75, 4.85, 4.90) en route to gold.

After Morris’ miss at 4.95 handed Suhr the title, officials initially raised the bar to 5.04 for Suhr to go after her own world record set in January. But Suhr then reversed course and elected to retire, content with her world title, championship record, and her health.

“With [USAs] not too long ago, my calf was pretty tight and my knee was here or there,” Suhr said. “I wanted to start the season healthy and end the season healthy.”

POS	BIB	ATHLETE	COUNTRY	MARK	DETAIL	4.35	4.50	4.60	4.70	4.75	4.80	4.85	4.90	4.95
1	841	Jennifer SUHR	USA	4.90	CR	–	–	O	–	O	–	O	O	R
2	830	Sandi MORRIS	USA	4.85		–	O	O	O	XO	O	O	XX-	X
3	688	Ekateríni STEFANÍDI	GRE	4.80		–	O	O	O	O	O	X-	XX
4	790	Nicole BÜCHLER	SUI	4.80	NIR	–	O	XXO	XXO	XX-	O	X-	XX
5	760	Eliza MCCARTNEY	NZL	4.70	NIR	–	O	–	XO	–	XXX
6	686	Nikoléta KYRIAKOPOÚLOU	GRE	4.60		–	O	O	XXX
6	623	Fabiana MURER	BRA	4.60		–	O	O	XXX
8	647	Romana MALÁCOVÁ	CZE	4.50		XO	O	XXX
	772	Marta ONOFRE	POR	NM		XXX
	604	Alana BOYD	AUS	DNS

Quick Take #1: Congrats to Suhr on a terrific season — though it’s too bad for the fans that they didn’t get to see any world record attempts

Though Suhr didn’t win the U.S. title, she ends the indoor season with a world record and a world championship. Very impressive. The one downer was that fans didn’t get to see Suhr — who would have had three chances at it — try for a world record on home soil. When Suhr broke the world record earlier this year, it was on one of the smallest scenes possible — the Golden Eagle Invitational in tiny Brockport, N.Y. Tonight provided a rare opportunity for Suhr to do it in front of a large American crowd but she turned it down.

We can’t totally fault her. The Olympics is her main focus this year, and Suhr admitted that she wasn’t 100% going into tonight’s vault and didn’t want to risk further damage. The fans will still go home happy with Americans going 1-2, but we’re sure that more than a few of them will be thinking of what could have been if Suhr attempted a world record height.

Quick Take #2: Sandi Morris didn’t have it tonight and was pleased to still manage 4.85

When Morris made a lot of contact with the bar on her clearance of 4.75 meters, it looked as if she might struggle to get to go higher. She brushed the bar again on 4.80 meters and sent it rocking at 4.85 but it didn’t fall off on either occasion.

After the competition, Morris admitted that she wasn’t at her best technically, but her performance tonight showed just how far she’s come in a short timespan. Her all-time best entering 2016 was 4.76 and as recently as a week ago, 4.85 would have been a lifetime best by five centimeters.

“I was pretty off tonight,” Morris said. “My technique was not on. To pull it together and know I can make 4.85 on a night where my technique feels off, that feels pretty good.”

Quick Take #3: Video Interviews With Jenn Suhr And Sandi Morris