Pole vault qualifying rounds are always a bit painful to watch because the vaulters stop jumping once the targeted field size has been reached. This one was particularly painful because American record holder KC Lightfoot was unable to clear 5.60m and will not be advancing to the final and an unnecessary round of jumping at 5.70m made for a very long competition.
The conditions were pleasant, upper 80s and the wind appeared to be mostly a tailwind.
There were 26 men in the competition and the goal was to reduce the field to 12.
At the opening height of 5.40m, Trevor Stephenson was the only vaulter who failed to clear the bar.
The next height was 5.50m, we lost Logan Hammer, Conner McClure, Jacob Englar, Bradley Jelmert, James Rhoads and Scott Houston at this height, reducing the field to 19.
At 5.60m, KC Lightfoot surprised everyone by struggling. Lightfoot jumped 6.00m this indoor season and has jumped 5.80m or better in three of his four outdoor meets.
On Lightfoot’s first attempt at 5.60m he aborted his approach, then bailed when he tried again.
On his second attempt it looked like he might have gone down a pole because he had way too much pole speed and never had a chance at clearing the bar.
On his third attempt he came down on the bar, it bounced around on the pegs for a second before falling to the pit and ending his 2024 Olympic dreams.
Christyan Sampy and Clayton Simms were also unable to clear this height, while Scott Toney missed once and then passed.
The bar was raised to 5.65m with 16 vaulters remaining.
Scott Toney missed his remaining attempts and Cole Walsh missed his three attempts while 13 vaulters cleared the height. But Tyler Burns added a wrinkle to the competition when he missed twice and then passed.
The rules for when to end a qualifying round have more to do with the desires of meet management than anything dictated by the rule book. For example, the NCAA holds administrative jump-offs to break ties for the final advancing spot, while USATF and World Athletics have typically accepted all athletes if the field is one or two over the targeted size.
Burns passing made things complicated.
Burns was in 15th place and not going to advance to the final unless he cleared the next bar. The next three vaulters were in a three way tie for 11th, so even if Burns clears, he does not displace any of them.
In my opinion, it would have been within the rules for the officials or meet management to decide that the 13 vaulters who cleared 5.65m would all advance to the final, and only Burns would need to jump at 5.70m.
Even if you raised the bar to 5.70 and everyone jumped, if Burns cleared but none of the vaulters tied at the bottom did, you would still end up taking 14 to the final.
Unfortunately, the officials decided everyone needed to jump at 5.70m.
Sam Kendricks and Matt Ludwig both had no misses and were 100% guaranteed to be in the final even if everyone else cleared 5.70m, so they passed.
Everyone else jumped. At this point it was around 7:30pm, the vaulters had been on the infield for over four hours, and a lot of them were gassed.
Austin Miller was the only vaulter able to clear 5.70m on his first attempt. Chris Nilsen, Jacob Wooten, Keaton Daniel and Zach Bradford all cleared on their second attempts.
Burns had his one attempt and ran through.
Once the three vaulters tied for 11th missed all three attempts, and remaining two vaulters were 100% guaranteed to be in the final and they passed their final attempt and at about 7:45pm the nearly two hour long qualifying round was finally over.
Lightfoot was the only vaulter with the Olympic standard who was unable to advance.
In the mixed zone after the meet, Sam Kendricks mentioned that he may decline his spot on the Olympic team if he qualifies, he expressed that he is still very unhappy with how he was treated in Tokyo (after he tested positive for Covid).
Keaton Daniel video interview with Dyestat/Runnerspace