Women's National Record Improvements

[roger/over]

WPV National Records Improvements 1997-2009

The 2009 outdoor season for the women’s pole vault has, so far, seemed to me a disappointing one. One measure of that disappointment is my counting national record improvements for only 16 countries, of the 128 in my current record files.

On the whole, though, I have felt that improvement in the women’s vault over the past decade was perhaps the best in any track and field event. In looking for a way to put that feeling into figures, I was fortunate to find an archived copy of my first post of women’s national records, sent in early 1997 to the University of Oregon t-and-f mailing list.

At that time, I was able to find records for only 30 countries, my main source being Petri Niininen’s Athletics Home Page website. The records for those countries were:

Argentina 3.82 Alejandra Garcia 1996-16-14 Mar del Plata
Australia 4.55 Emma George 1997-02-20 Melbourne
Austria 3.60 Doris Auer 1996-08-10 Linz
Belgium 3.95 Sophie Zubiolo 1995-07-02 Jambes
Canada 3.70 Rebecca Chambers 1995-07-13 Montreal
China 4.33 Cai Weiyan 1996-10-05 Shenzhen
Czech Republic 4.27 Daniela Bartova 1996-09-18 Oristano
Denmark 3.14 Lene Kjeldsen 1984-09-10 Arhus
Finland 3.80 Tiina Lillak 1996-08-24 Helsinki
France 4.05 Amadine Homo 1995-08-16 Mirames
Germany 4.18 Andrea Mueller 1995-08-05 Zittau
Hungary 4.10 Eszter Szemeridi 1996-06-08 Budapest
Iceland 4.17 Vala Flosadottir 1996-09-28 Bordeaux
Israel 3.10 Tali Grinner 1997-03-30 Tel-Aviv
Italy 4.06 Maria Bresciani 1996-09-14 Turin
Japan 3.60 Mami Nakano 1995-04-15 Takamatsu
Netherlands 3.40 Monique de Wilt 1996-06-01 Den Haag
New Zealand 3.85 Cassandra Kellen 1997-02-15 Hamilton
Norway 3.80 Anita Tomulevski 1996-06-10 Gjovik
Poland 3.11 Anna Skrzynska 1995-08-18 Warszawa
Portugal 3.30 Cristina Santos 1996-07-24 Maia
Romania 4.00 Gabriella Mihalcea 1995-06-05 Bugeat
Russia 4.10 Svetlana Abramova 1996-06-01 Moscow
Slovenia 3.15 Suzana Kos 1995-09-10 Celje
South Africa 3.07 Elmarie Gerryts 1995-11-01 Stellenboch
Spain 3.40 Sylvia Delgado 1995-07-07
Sweden 3.52 Alissa White 1996-08-09 Karlskrona
Ukraine 4.05 Anzhela Balakhonova 1996-08-11 Sopot
United States 4.22 Stacy Dragila 1997-04-12 Eugene
Uruguay 3.82 Deborah Gyurcsek 1997-04-06 Mar del Plata

average 3.79m = 12'5"

Current national records for those countries are:

Argentina 4.43 Alejandra Garcia* 2004-04-03 Santa Fe
Australia 4.65 Kym Howe 2007-06-30 Saulheim
Austria 4.40 Doris Auer* 2000-09-17 Gold Coast
Belgium 4.20 Irena Dufour 2004-08-03 Naimette-Xhovemo
Canada 4.55 Kelsie Hendry 2008-06-14 Prince Albert
China 4.64 Gao Shuying 2007-06-02 New York
Czech Republic 4.75 Katerina Badurova 2007-08-28 Osaka
Denmark 4.35 Marie Rasmussen 2000-09-25 Sydney
Finland 4.45 Minna Nikkanen 2009-07-08 Lapua
France 4.70 Vanessa Boslak 2006-06-28 Malaga
Germany 4.77 Annika Becker 2002-07-07 Bochum
Hungary 4.55 Krisztia Molnar 2006-08-22 Beckum
Iceland 4.60 Thorey Elisdottir 2004-07-17 Madrid
Israel 4.03 Olga Dogadko 2007-07-04 Tel-Aviv
Italy 4.46 Anna Giordano Bruno 2009-07-12 Lignano
Japan 4.36 Ikuko Nishikori 2006-04-29 Hiroshima
Netherlands 4.40 Monique de Wilt* 2002-08-09 Munich
New Zealand 4.40 Melina Hamilton 2003-04-12 Runaway Bay
Norway 4.30 Cathrine Larsasen 2008-07-19 Trondheim
Poland 4.83 Anna Rogowska 2005-08-26 Bruxelles
Portugal 4.35 Sandra-Helene Tavares 2008-06-21 Leiria
Romania 4.22 Gabriella Mihalcea* 1999-06-11 Dreux
Russia 5.05 Yelena Isinbayeva 2008-08-18 Beijing
Slovenia 4.45 Tina Sutej 2009-07-18 Kaunas
South Africa 4.45 Elmarie Gerryts* 2000-06-12 Wesel
Spain 4.50 Naroa Agirre 2006-05-28 Saulheim
Sweden 4.51 Kirsten Belin 2002-08-27 Göteborg
Ukraine 4.57 Anzhela Balakhonova* 2004-07-04 Yalta
United States 4.92 Jennifer Stuczynski 2008-07-06 Eugene
Uruguay 4.23 Deborah Gyurcsek* 2000-07-23 Mar del Plata

average 4.50m = 14'9"

* Vaulters whose names are starred also held the national record in the 1997 list, although all had improved on that record. Notable among these is Netherland's Monique de Wilt, whose improvement was a full meter over her 1997 mark.

At this point in my search, I began to wonder about the extent to which countries that had ranked high with their national records in the 1997 list had maintained this superiority in the 2009 list. I sorted the two lists on rank order and compared them:

Rank by NR Height 1997 Rank by NR Height 2009

1 Australia 4.55 . . . . . . 1 Russia 5.05
2 China 4.33 . . . . . . 2 United States 4.92
3 Czech Republic 4.27 . . 3 Poland 4.83
4 United States 4.22 . . 4 Germany 4.77
5 Germany 4.18 . . . . . . 5 Czech Republic 4.75
6 Iceland 4.17 . . . . . . 6 France 4.70
7 Russia 4.10 . . . . . . 7 Australia 4.65
8 Hungary 4.10 . . . . . . 8 China 4.64
9 Italy 4.06 . . . . . . 9 Iceland 4.60
10 Ukraine 4.05 . . . . . . 10 Ukraine 4.57
11 France 4.05 . . . . . . 11 Hungary 4.55
12 Romania 4.00 . . . . . . 12 Canada 4.55
13 Belgium 3.95 . . . . . . 13 Sweden 4.51
14 New Zealand 3.85 . . . . 14 Spain 4.50
15 Uruguay 3.82 . . . . . . 15 Italy 4.46
16 Argentina 3.82 . . . . . . 16 South Africa 4.45
17 Norway 3.80 . . . . . . 17 Slovenia 4.45
18 Finland 3.80 . . . . . . 18 Finland 4.45
19 South Africa 3.70 . . . . 19 Argentina 4.43
20 Canada 3.70 . . . . . . 20 New Zealand 4.40
21 Japan 3.60 . . . . . . 21 Netherlands 4.40
22 Austria 3.60 . . . . . . 22 Austria 4.40
23 Sweden 3.52 . . . . . . 23 Japan 4.36
24 Spain 3.40 . . . . . . 24 Portugal 4.35
25 Netherlands 3.40 . . . . 25 Denmark 4.35
26 Portugal 3.30 . . . . . . 26 Norway 4.30
27 Slovenia 3.15 . . . . . . 27 Uruguay 4.23
28 Denmark 3.14 . . . . . . 28 Romania 4.22
29 Poland 3.11 . . . . . . 29 Belgium 4.20
30 Israel 3.10 . . . . . . 30 Israel 4.03

Some interesting points in the comparison:

Greatest improvement in rank: Poland #29 in 1997, #3 in 2007; very largely due to Monica Pyrek, who improved the Polish record 31 times and tied it another 10, before Rogowska took it a further 21cm.
Greatest decline in rank: Romania and Belgium, each down 16 places.
Least change: Ukraine #10 in both lists; Austria #22 in both lists; Israel last in both lists.

Looking at the two lists, it's obvious that the women's vault records in these countries have shown dramatic improvement over these dozen years; but how might one define this improvement in a way that facilitates comparison with those in other events?

In the charts above, I have shown the average NR height in 1997 to be 3.79m and that this far in 2009 to be 4.50m. One way to compare these that would permit similar calculation with other events might be to convert each to its equivalent in the IAAF scoring tables for combined events. If I do this:

3.79m = 883 points
4.50m = 1199 points
improvement = 36%

Is this a fair way to express the improvement in women's national pole vault records over the last dozen years? If so, is there another track and field event that has shown equal or better improvement in its national records?

[annagb]

Great statistics! It would be great to see the whole list. Thank you also for the interesting comparison.
But Italian record is now 4,60m and I think that Slovenian record is still 4,30m of Teja Melink in 2004.

[roger/over]

Thanks for your careful reading and corrections. I don’t know how I made the error on the Slovenian record, because I have Melink’s 4.30m as the record on my current list and Sutej’s personal best as 4.25m at the World University Games on 10 July.

The mistake on the Italian record is perhaps partly excusable, in that your 4.60m was set just yesterday, but the 4.46 is totally inexcusable, because that height was cleared enroute to your 4.55 at Trieste on 25 July, which I had on my current list as the Italian record. Perhaps if any plea except carelessness is possible, it might be that I’m too old and slow to keep up with your pace of record-breaking: four improvements on the Italian standard in this outdoor season.

The good news, if any, is that my understating the Italian record by 14 centimeters and overstating the Slovenian record by 15 centimeters leaves the 2009 NR average unchanged at 4.50m.