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Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics – Men's pole vault

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Men's pole vault
at the Games of the XVIII Olympiad
Left-right: Reinhardt, Hansen, Lehnertz
VenueOlympic Stadium
Dates15–17 October
Competitors30 from 19 nations
Winning height5.10 OR
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Fred Hansen
 United States
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Wolfgang Reinhardt
 United Team of Germany
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Klaus Lehnertz
 United Team of Germany
← 1960
1968 →
Official Video Highlights @29:48 Video on YouTube

The men's pole vault was one of four men's jumping events on the Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics program in Tokyo. Qualification was held on 15 October 1964, with the final on 17 October. 32 athletes from 20 nations entered, with 2 not starting in the qualification round.[1] The final lasted over seven hours, to date the longest competition in history. All finalists qualified at 4.60, however in the final five were unable to achieve the height again.

At the time, the United States had never lost an Olympic pole vault competition. In the final, the last remaining American was Fred Hansen, who at the time was also the world record holder. Hansen cleared 5 meters on his first attempt, but so did three German athletes, making it a four-way tie. Hansen passed the next height, watching as only Wolfgang Reinhardt was able to clear. Re-entering the competition at 5.10, Hansen failed his first two attempts, but so did Reinhardt. Hansen then sailed over his final attempt, while Reinhart could not. Hansen continued the American streak, which would survive through one more Olympics until the 1972 pole vault controversy, when defending champion Bob Seagren had his pole confiscated at the games and had to compete on an unfamiliar, borrowed pole. Reinhardt's silver and Klaus Lehnertz's bronze were the first medals by German vaulters.

Background

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This was the 15th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The returning finalists from the 1960 Games were fourth-place finisher Rolando Cruz of Puerto Rico, eighth-place finisher Rudolf Tomášek of Czechoslovakia, and eleventh-place finisher Dimitar Khlebarov of Bulgaria. This was the first Games to feature fiberglass poles, which had been used to break the world record 15 times since 1961. The last six were by three Americans: Brian Sternberg, John Pennel, and Fred Hansen. Sternberg had broken his neck practicing trampolining in 1963 and Pennel had suffered a (far less severe) back injury shortly before the Games, so Hansen was the favorite (though Pennel was able to compete).[2]

For only the second time in Olympic pole vault history (1932), no nations made their debut in the event. The United States made its 15th appearance, the only nation to have competed at every Olympic men's pole vault to that point.

Competition format

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The competition used the two-round format introduced in 1912, with results cleared between rounds. Vaulters received three attempts at each height. Ties were broken by the countback rule. At the time, total attempts was used after total misses.

In the qualifying round, the bar was set at 4.20 metres, 4.30 metres, 4.40 metres, 4.55 metres (which every vaulter passed on), and 4.60 metres. All vaulters clearing 4.60 metres advanced to the final. If fewer than 12 cleared that height, the top 12 (including ties) advanced.

In the final, the bar was set at 4.40 metres, 4.60 metres, 4.70 metres, 4.80 metres, and then increased by 5 centimetres at a time.[2][3]

Records

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

World record  Fred Hansen (USA) 5.28 Los Angeles, United States 25 July 1964
Olympic record  Don Bragg (USA) 4.70 Rome, Italy 7 September 1960

The qualifying height for the final was only 10 centimetres under the old Olympic record; the introduction of fibreglass poles had made marks set before 1961 trivial for top vaulters. Thirteen men tied the old record, nine broke it, and Fred Hansen finished with a new record fully 40 centimetres above the old one.

Schedule

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All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)

Date Time Round
Thursday, 15 October 1964 13:00 Qualifying
Saturday, 17 October 1964 13:00 Final

Results

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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

Qualifying

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Vaulters had to clear 4.60 metres to qualify for the final. The bar started at 4.20 metres, increasing gradually to 4.60 metres. Each jumper had three attempts at each height or could skip any lower height (but could not return to a lower height if he determined that he could not succeed).

Rank Athlete Nation 4.20 4.30 4.40 4.50 4.60 Height Notes
1 Hennadiy Bleznitsov  Soviet Union o 4.60 Q
Fred Hansen  United States o 4.60 Q
Billy Gene Pemelton  United States o 4.60 Q
4 Risto Ankio  Finland o o 4.60 Q
Igor Feld  Soviet Union o o 4.60 Q
Roman Lešek  Yugoslavia o o 4.60 Q
Pentti Nikula  Finland o o 4.60 Q
Wolfgang Reinhardt  United Team of Germany o o 4.60 Q
Rudolf Tomášek  Czechoslovakia o o 4.60 Q
10 Herve D'Encausse  France o o o 4.60 Q
Yang Chuan-kwang  Taiwan o o o 4.60 Q
12 Sergey Dyomin  Soviet Union xo o 4.60 Q
13 Klaus Lehnertz  United Team of Germany o xo o 4.60 Q
14 Manfred Preussger  United Team of Germany xxo o 4.60 Q
16 Gerry Moro  Canada xo xo o 4.60 Q
Christos Papanikolau  Greece xo xo o 4.60 Q
17 John Pennel  United States xo 4.60 Q
18 Taisto Laitinen  Finland o xo 4.60 Q
19 Ignacio Sola  Spain o o o xxo 4.60 Q
20 Dave Stevenson  Great Britain o o o xxx 4.50
21 Rolando Cruz  Puerto Rico o xxo o xxx 4.50
22 Hisao Morita  Japan o xxx 4.40
23 Werner Duttweiler  Switzerland o o xxx 4.40
24 Yoshimasa Torii  Japan o xo xxx 4.40
25 Renato Dionisi  Italy o xxx 4.20
Masashi Otsubo  Japan o xxx 4.20
27 Paul Coppejans  Belgium o xxx 4.20
Dimitar Khlebarov  Bulgaria xxx No mark
Włodzimierz Sokołowski  Poland xxx No mark
Maurice Houvion  France xxx No mark
Valbjörn Þorláksson  Iceland DNS
Wu Ar Min  Taiwan DNS

Final

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Rank Athlete Nation 4.40 4.60 4.70 4.80 4.85 4.90 4.95 5.00 5.05 5.10 Height Notes
1st place, gold medalist(s) Fred Hansen  United States o o o o xxo 5.10 OR
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Wolfgang Reinhardt  United Team of Germany xo xo xo xo o o xxx 5.05
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Klaus Lehnertz  United Team of Germany o o o o o o xo o xxx 5.00
4 Manfred Preussger  United Team of Germany xxo o o o xxx 5.00
5 Hennadiy Bleznitsov  Soviet Union o o o o o xxx 4.95
6 Rudolf Tomášek  Czechoslovakia o o xo o xxx 4.90
7 Pentti Nikula  Finland xo xo o xxo xo o xxx 4.90
8 Billy Gene Pemelton  United States o o xxx 4.80
9 Igor Feld  Soviet Union o xxo xo xxx 4.80
10 Gerry Moro  Canada o xo o xxx 4.70
11 John Pennel  United States xo xxx 4.70
12 Risto Ankio  Finland o xo xxx 4.70
13 Roman Lesek  Yugoslavia o xxo xo xxx 4.70
14 Taisto Laitinen  Finland o o xxx 4.60
15 Sergey Demin  Soviet Union o xxx 4.40
Herve D'Encausse  France o xxx 4.40
Ignacio Sola  Spain o xxx 4.40
18 Christos Papanikolau  Greece xo xxx 4.40
Yang Chuan-kwang  Taiwan xxx No mark

References

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  1. ^ "Athletics at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Games: Men's Pole Vault". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 4 January 2018.
  2. ^ a b "Pole Vault, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 18 September 2020.
  3. ^ Official Report, vol. 2, p. 45.