Athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Men's pole vault

Men's pole vault at the Games of the XXXI Olympiad
Venue	Olympic Stadium
Date	13–15 August 2016
Competitors	32 from 17 nations
Winning height	6.03 m OR, AR
Medalists
Thiago Braz da Silva   Brazil   Renaud Lavillenie   France   Sam Kendricks   United States

Official Video Highlights

Athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics
List of athletes
Qualification
Track events
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
800 m		men		women
1500 m		men		women
5000 m		men		women
10,000 m		men		women
100 m hurdles				women
110 m hurdles		men
400 m hurdles		men		women
3000 m steeplechase		men		women
4 × 100 m relay		men		women
4 × 400 m relay		men		women
Road events
Marathon		men		women
20 km walk		men		women
50 km walk		men
Field events
Long jump		men		women
Triple jump		men		women
High jump		men		women
Pole vault		men		women
Shot put		men		women
Discus throw		men		women
Javelin throw		men		women
Hammer throw		men		women
Combined events
Heptathlon				women
Decathlon		men

The men's pole vault competition at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The event was held at the Olympic Stadium between 13–15 August.^[1] Thiago Braz da Silva of Brazil won the gold medal.

Summary

The world record holder, Renaud Lavillenie of France, entered as the reigning Olympic champion from 2012 and held the best vaults indoors and out before the competition. The 2015 World Champion Shawnacy Barber of Canada ranked just behind, having had his first six-metre clearance that season. One of Brazil's best athletics medal hopes was Thiago Braz da Silva, who had the third best mark of the year. The American champion Sam Kendricks was also highly ranked and had won silver at the 2016 World Indoor Championships behind Lavillenie.^[2][3][4]

In the qualifying round, nine men reached 5.70 m with three others progressing on 5.60 m. An injury-affected Raphael Holzdeppe, a former world champion and Olympic medallist, exited at this stage, as did 2011 world champion Paweł Wojciechowski. Both Barber and Braz required three attempts at their opening height but managed to progress. Braz, Kendricks and Greece's Konstadínos Filippídis showed form as the only athletes to clear 5.70 m in one attempt.^[5]

After one attempt by Xue Changrui, the final round was delayed for one hour and restarted from scratch due to a rainstorm that passed through. Six competitors had already exited the competition before defending champion/world record holder Renaud Lavillenie took his first attempt at 5.75 m. Among the eliminated was 2015 World Champion Shawnacy Barber. There was a great deal of strategic passing in this event, place meaning everything in the Olympics as opposed to most other competitions where the fraternity of pole vaulters are all seeking to improve their personal best. The medalists were settled with a first attempt clearance of 5.85 m. Jan Kudlička and Piotr Lisek missed once and strategically passed to 5.93 m where they missed, while Xie had already strategically passed to 5.85 m and missed. Sam Kendricks was high over his bars earlier in the competition but could go no further than 5.85 m and had to settle for bronze, while Lavillenie held the lead with a clean round of first attempt clearances to 5.98 m (the latter improving his own Olympic record from London). Home town favorite Thiago Braz da Silva cleared an outdoor personal record of 5.93 m on his second attempt to surpass Kendricks. Jumping ahead of him, after Lavillenie cleared 5.98 m, with nothing to be gained by a clearance, Braz passed. At the next height, 6.03 m (19 ft 9 ¹⁄₄ in) after Lavillenie had missed twice, on his second attempt, Braz made a solid clearance. Lavillenie passed to the next height, 6.08 m. Even though he holds the world record, that was set in controlled conditions indoors, 6.08 m is a height he has never cleared outdoors. These conditions, with rain and wind affecting competitions all across the Olympic venues, were anything but controlled. Lavillenie missed and the Olympic title was settled.^[6]

Braz de Silva set a new South American Record, a 10 cm improvement over his own record. It ties him with Okkert Brits and Jeff Hartwig as the number 7 jumper in history.^[7] It improves the Olympic record, formerly held by Lavillenie and improved by him earlier in the competition. At 6.03 m, Braz was the highest jumper for first time entry into the Six metres club.

The following evening the medals were presented by Bernard Rajzman, IOC member, Brazil and Roberto Gesta de Melo, Council Member of the IAAF.

Competition format

The competition consisted of two rounds, qualification and final. In qualification, each athlete had three attempts at each height and was eliminated if he failed to clear any height. Athletes who successfully jumped the qualifying height moved on the final. If fewer than 12 reached that height, the best 12 moved on. Cleared heights reset for the final, which followed the same three-attempts-per-height format until all athletes reached a height they could not jump.

Schedule

All times are Brasilia Time (UTC-3)

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Renaud Lavillenie (FRA)	6.16 m	Donetsk, Ukraine	15 February 2014
Olympic record	Renaud Lavillenie (FRA)	5.97 m	London, United Kingdom	10 August 2012
2016 World leading	Renaud Lavillenie (FRA)	5.96 m	Sotteville-lès-Rouen, France	18 July 2016

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Event	Name	Nationality	Distance	Record
16 August	Final	Renaud Lavillenie	France	5.98 m	OR
16 August	Final	Thiago Braz da Silva	Brazil	6.03 m	OR

The following national record was established during the competition:

Country	Athlete	Round	Height	Notes
Brazil	Thiago Braz da Silva (BRA)	Final	6.03 m	OR, AR

Results

Key

Qualifying round

Qualification rule: Qualifying performance 5.75 (Q) or at least 12 best performers (q) advance to the Final.

Rank	Group	Name	Nationality	5.30	5.45	5.60	5.70	Result	Notes
1	A	Kendricks, SamSam Kendricks	United States	o	o	o	o	5.70	q
2	B	Filippidis, KonstadinosKonstadinos Filippidis	Greece	o	o	xo	o	5.70	q
3	B	Braz da Silva, ThiagoThiago Braz da Silva	Brazil	–	xx–	o	o	5.70	q
4	A	Lavillenie, RenaudRenaud Lavillenie	France	–	–	–	xo	5.70	q
	A	Xue Changrui	China	–	o	o	xo	5.70	q
6	A	Lisek, PiotrPiotr Lisek	Poland	–	o	xo	xo	5.70	q
7	B	Barber, ShawnacyShawnacy Barber	Canada	–	xxo	o	xo	5.70	q
	A	Chiaraviglio, GermánGermán Chiaraviglio	Argentina	o	o	xxo	xo	5.70	q, SB
	A	Kudlička, JanJan Kudlička	Czech Republic	o	o	xxo	xo	5.70	q
10	B	Balner, MichalMichal Balner	Czech Republic	o	o	o	xxx	5.60	q
	A	Pujāts, PaulsPauls Pujāts	Latvia	o	o	o	xxx	5.60	q
	A	Sawano, DaichiDaichi Sawano	Japan	–	o	o	xxx	5.60	q
13	A	Sobera, RobertRobert Sobera	Poland	o	x	o	xxx	5.60
14	B	Yao Jie	China	–	xo	xo	xxx	5.60
15	A	Marschall, KurtisKurtis Marschall	Australia	o	o	xxo	xxx	5.60
16	B	Ārents, MareksMareks Ārents	Latvia	o	o	xxx		5.45
	B	Huang Bokai	China	o	o	xxx		5.45
	B	Joseph, StanleyStanley Joseph	France	o	o	xxx		5.45
	B	Menaldo, KévinKévin Menaldo	France	–	o	xr		5.45
	B	Wojciechowski, PawełPaweł Wojciechowski	Poland	o	o	xxx		5.45
21	A	Ogita, HirokiHiroki Ogita	Japan	xo	o	xxx		5.45
22	A	Cutts, LukeLuke Cutts	Great Britain	o	xo	xxx		5.45
	A	de Oliveira, Augusto DutraAugusto Dutra de Oliveira	Brazil	o	xo	xxx		5.45
	B	Renner, RobertRobert Renner	Slovenia	o	xo	xxx		5.45
25	A	Scherbarth, TobiasTobias Scherbarth	Germany	xo	xo	xxx		5.45
26	A	Holzdeppe, RaphaelRaphael Holzdeppe	Germany	–	xxo	xxx		5.45
27	B	Horvat, IvanIvan Horvat	Croatia	o	xxx			5.30
28	B	Cunningham, LoganLogan Cunningham	United States	xxo	xxx			5.30
	B	Dilla, KarstenKarsten Dilla	Germany	xxo	xxx			5.30
	B	Simmons, CaleCale Simmons	United States	xxo	xxx			5.30
29 !–	B	Yamamoto, SeitoSeito Yamamoto	Japan	–	xxx			5 !NM
30 !–	A	Jacobsson, Melker SvärdMelker Svärd Jacobsson	Sweden	N/A				DNS

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	5.50	5.65	5.75	5.85	5.93	5.98	6.03	6.08	Result	Notes
01 !	Braz da Silva, ThiagoThiago Braz da Silva	Brazil	–	o	xo	o	xo	–	xo		6.03	OR, AR
02 !	Lavillenie, RenaudRenaud Lavillenie	France	–	–	o	o	o	o	xx–	x	5.98
03 !	Kendricks, SamSam Kendricks	United States	o	xo	x–	o	xxx				5.85
04 !4	Kudlička, JanJan Kudlička	Czech Republic	o	o	o	x–	xx				5.75
	Lisek, PiotrPiotr Lisek	Poland	o	o	o	x–	xx				5.75
06 !6	Xue Changrui	China	xxo	xxo	xx–	x					5.65
07 !7	Balner, MichalMichal Balner	Czech Republic	o	xxx							5.50
	Filippidis, KonstadinosKonstadinos Filippidis	Greece	o	xxx							5.50
	Sawano, DaichiDaichi Sawano	Japan	o	xxx							5.50
10	Barber, ShawnacyShawnacy Barber	Canada	xo	xxx							5.50
11	Chiaraviglio, GermánGermán Chiaraviglio	Argentina	xxo	xxx							5.50
12 !–	Pujāts, PaulsPauls Pujāts	Latvia	xxx								6 !NM

References