POLE VAULTING, the art of springing over an obstacle with the aid of a pole. Originally a means of passing over obstacles as dikes and brooks, pole vaulting, for height, with the object of clearing a bar supported by two uprights set not less than I2ft. apart, has become a purely competitive athletic sport. The chief requirements of the athlete are great skill and courage, a high degree of co-ordination, speed and strength, and a good grip.
Up to the end of the "eighties" all the world's record holders in the sport came from the small town of Ulverston, in Lanca shire. They gained their records by means of the extraordinary method they had evolved. It was not really "pole vaulting," but rather "pole climbing." This has now been barred.
The pole now employed is of female bamboo, no longer spiked, but has a plugged end which is thrust into a slide-way sunk in the ground a foot in front of a line directly below the cross-bar, and, moreover, a soft sand-pit, top-dressed with sawdust, is pro vided for the vaulter to land in.
The modern pole vaulter approaches the take-off very fast, carrying the pole with his hands about 3ft. apart. As the stride next before the spring is completed he thrusts the point of the pole into the slide-way, and lets the lower hand slip up the pole until it touches the upper hand. He is thus enabled to exert the full pulling power of both arms to raise his body and help the swing-up of his legs. It is noteworthy that this trick, efficiently performed, enabled Gold, former holder of the U.S.A. Western Conference record, to clear I2ft. loin., although the grip of his upper hand upon the pole was no higher than I 1 ft. 2in., or 1 f t. 8in. below the height he actually cleared.
Modern vaulters may be divided into two classes: (I) Those who prefer the single action in which the legs swing upwards and to the side in one single bound. This style requires great speed, and, using it, Charles Hoff (Norway) cleared i3ft. I i iin. (Fin land, Sept. 27, 1925). (2) Those who prefer the double action. In this style the athlete's feet reach a point above the bar before the pole has arrived at a vertical position. At this stage the
vaulter shoots his legs still higher by means of a strong arm-pull on the pole. He next turns his body face downwards by means of kicking one leg forward and the other back, and converts his pulling force into a pushing force. The bar lies in the concavity of the stomach, so that the feet, on one side, and his head and shoulders on the other side, are below the level of the bar. The athlete finally carries his body clear of the cross-bar by pushing strongly upwards from the upright pole. In this style, Sabin W. Carr, Yale university (U.S.A.) in 1927 established a world's record of 14ft., which R. Lee Barnes, U.S.A. (1928), using the single action, increased to i4ft. 1 yin.
The use of the bamboo pole has added approximately a foot to the records, and modern methods have been responsible for another i8in. or so. An astounding improvement in performance has taken place recently and, although only U.S.A. and Japanese vaulters, so far, have exceeded I4ft., all the eleven men who tied for sixth place in the Olympic Games at Berlin in 1936 cleared 4 metres (I3ft. 'lin.), a height which would have won the title at any of the previous Olympic celebrations except those of 1932. The finalists included F. R. Webster, the first British representa tive to reach an Olympic Pole Vault final.
N. Dole, U.S.A. (1904), was the first man to beat I2ft.; M. S. Wright, Dartmouth college, U.S.A. (1912 ), the first to clear 13ft. ; while Sabin Q. Carr, Yale university, U.S.A. (1927), was the first to clear I4ft. F. R. Webster (Cambridge university) was the first British athlete to exceed 13ft.
Records in 1936 :—World's, K. Brown, U.S.A., i4ft. 5iin.; Olympic, E. Meadows, U.S.A., 14ft. 3iin., G. Varoff, U.S.A., i4ft. 61in. (awaiting acceptance) ; English record, F. R. Webster, i2ft. 9in. A British vaulter, A. W. Kinally, cleared I2ft. 6in. in 1936, the record standing at lift. 9in. in 1930.