With John Takahashi's blessing, I have uploaded his biff from the meet below. He was going for 5.71 and was a little under. Luckily he had the whereabouts to keep his left hand on the pole. Those of you who have seen "Bring It!" know from the Besmer piece that you "never let go of your pole . . . because it is your friend." In Jason's defense, he displayed his excitement only after assessing that John was just fine.
This was a great battle between Hartwig and Toby. If you watch close you can see Toby run through right before Hartwig makes 5.80. I've never seen Jeff give such a fired up celebration.
Then Toby makes 5.80 to send the bar higher. Jeff then runs through at 5.85 and Toby sees the opportunity to seel the win. Good Stuff.
Thanks to: Videography courtesy of Scott Slover. Camera borrowed from Mary Sauer.
Like I said in the below clip, Justin Norberg is showing some very good signs of jumping high this year. This clip shows the prophecy being fulfilled. I think this is only the beginning of impressive performances from Justin.
Justin Norberg is showing some very good signs of jumping high this year. Here is a clip him on a 510/14.0 from a seven stride.
Video courtesy of Matt Sheehan
Okay, so this one is personal. Chase broke my Cuesta school record of 17'. So obviously this is a very strong indicator that we can expect great things from Chase in the future.
Nice job Chase, just put that thought of going to Cal Poly out of your mind right now.
This one is bordering on personal. Here is John Takahashi clearing a PR and becoming the second best pole vaulter in the history of Cal Poly.
Video courtesy of Matt Sheehan
The following clip is of pole vaulter Tori Allen winning the gold in the X-Games Speed Climbing. She took down a Ukranian woman about twice her age. Talk about a range of athletic abilities.
Check it out.
Freshman Tommy Skipper topped the field by almost seven inches Saturday, Feb 7th (first, 18-8 1/4, 5.70m), and his NCAA automatic mark broke the school pole vault record of 18-6 1/2 set outdoors in 1985 by eventual Olympian and NCAA runner-up Kory Tarpenning. Skipper's former indoor best of 18-0 1/2 came last Saturday in Idaho, and he also rewrote his overall best of 18-3 that came outdoors last June in the Golden West Invitational.
Lauren Baker sent me the following clip. In the email she wrote:
Sean,
I love your website. It has really helped me in my own polevault training. The Neovault video is awesome too. Just thought I would send along a really funny clip from practice the other day. I'm a Senior at the United States Naval Academy and this is me wiping out.
Thanks Lauren Baker
I asked her if I could post the clip and lucky for you she said yes, click here.
It's been a long time coming for Toby Stevenson, and he finally broke the 19 foot barrier by jumping 19'¾" Jan 31st, in Washington. Congratulations Toby!
I spoke with him about it and he said he's had his share of frustrating practices leading up to this meet. He's been working on some things technically and they seem to be coming together. I think the results speak for themselves.
Former American Record Holder Scott Huffman did such a great job officiating my comp in Reno I grabbed a C'Mon DVD and gave it to him.
He wrote me an email saying the following:
“That was the best vault video I've ever seen. Professional level, just what our sport needs. Where were you when I was still active?”
Well Scott, I figured I'd put a clip of you "rollin" 19'2" at the beach vault, where you set the beach pole vault world record, and show the people how good you where at being active.
Trying to get some clips up ASAP for you guys. The footage is a little washed out because of where I was sitting. Enjoy the following. All are windows media.
Some pole vaulters perfect the art of getting verticle. Here's Mel Mueller perfecting the art of getting horizontal. Video courtesy of Anthony Curran of No Limit Sports.
