Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's pole vault

This was the 26th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The returning finalists from the 2004 Games were bronze medalist Giuseppe Gibilisco of Italy, fourth-place finisher Igor Pavlov of Russia, fifth-place finisher Danny Ecker of Germany, seventh-place finisher Derek Miles of the United States, eighth-place finisher Aleksandr Averbukh of Israel, ninth-place finisher Denys Yurchenko of Ukraine, eleventh-place finishers Paul Burgess of Australia and Tim Lobinger of Germany, thirteenth-place finisher Daichi Sawano of Japan, and sixteenth-place finisher Oleksandr Korchmid of Ukraine. Gibilisco, Ecker, Averbukh, and Lobinger had each been in the 2000 finals as well. Brad Walker of the United States was the reigning world champion.^[2]

Uzbekistan made its men's pole vaulting debut after entering a vaulter in 2004 who did not start. The United States made its 25th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Qualification

The qualifying standards were 5.70 m (18.7 ft) (A standard) and 5.55 m (18.21 ft) (B standard).^[3] Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) was able to enter up to three entrants providing they had met the A standard in the qualifying period (1 January 2007 to 23 July 2008). NOCs were also permitted to enter one athlete providing he had met the B standard in the same qualifying period.^[4] The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress.

Competition format

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.

In the qualifying round, the bar was set at 5.15 metres, 5.30 metres, 5.45 metres, 5.55 metres, and 5.65 metres. The next step would have been 5.75 metres, but no vaulters attempted that height (as only 13 cleared 5.65 metres, the qualifying was stopped there rather than trying to eliminate 1 vaulter). All vaulters clearing 5.75 metres advanced to the final. If fewer than 12 cleared that height, the top 12 (including ties, after applying the countback rules) advanced.

In the final, the bar was set at 5.45 metres, 5.60 metres, 5.70 metres, and then increasing by 5 centimetres at a time (with the winner, after clearing 5.90 metres, attempting at 5.96 metres rather than 5.95 metres, trying for a new Olympic record).^[2][5]

Records

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

World record	Sergey Bubka (UKR) Sergey Bubka	6.14	Sestriere, Italy	31 July 1994
Olympic record	Timothy Mack (USA)	5.95	Athens, Greece	27 August 2004

Schedule

All times are

Results

Key

Qualifying round

Qualifying performance 5.75 (Q) or at least 12 best performers (q) advance to the final.

Rank	Group	Athlete	Nation	5.15	5.30	5.45	5.55	5.65	Height	Notes
1	B	Yevgeniy Lukyanenko	Russia	—	—	—	o	o	5.65	q
	A	Igor Pavlov	Russia	—	—	o	—	o	5.65	q
3	A	Leonid Andreev	Uzbekistan	—	o	o	o	xo	5.65	q, =PB
	A	Jérôme Clavier	France	—	o	—	o	xo	5.65	q
	A	Raphael Holzdeppe	Germany	—	—	o	o	xo	5.65	q
3	A	Denys Yurchenko	Ukraine	—	—	o	—	xo	5.65	q, DPG
7	B	Przemysław Czerwiński	Poland	—	—	o	xo	xo	5.65	q
	A	Jan Kudlička	Czech Republic	o	o	—	xo	xo	5.65	q
9	B	Danny Ecker	Germany	—	—	xxo	—	xo	5.65	q
	B	Derek Miles	United States	—	—	o	xxo	xo	5.65	q
11	A	Dmitry Starodubtsev	Russia	—	xo	—	xxo	xo	5.65	q
12	B	Steven Hooker	Australia	—	—	—	—	xxo	5.65	q
13	B	Giuseppe Gibilisco	Italy	—	—	xo	o	xxo	5.65	q, SB
14	B	Alhaji Jeng	Sweden	—	—	—	o	xxx	5.55
	B	Romain Mesnil	France	—	—	—	o	xxx	5.55
16	A	Paul Burgess	Australia	—	—	o	xo	xxx	5.55
	B	Tim Lobinger	Germany	—	—	o	xo	xxx	5.55
	A	Maksym Mazuryk	Ukraine	—	—	o	xo	xxx	5.55
	B	Daichi Sawano	Japan	—	—	o	xo	xxx	5.55
20	A	Jeff Hartwig	United States	—	—	o	xxo	xxx	5.55
	A	Liu Feiliang	China	—	o	o	xxo	xxx	5.55
22	B	Oleksandr Korchmid	Ukraine	—	—	o	xxx	—	5.45
	B	Mikko Latvala	Finland	—	—	o	—	xxx	5.45
24	A	Jesper Fritz	Sweden	—	xo	o	xxx	—	5.45
25	B	Spas Bukhalov	Bulgaria	—	—	xo	—	xxx	5.45
	B	Fábio Gomes da Silva	Brazil	—	—	xo	xxx	—	5.45
	A	Giovanni Lanaro	Mexico	—	—	xo	xxx	—	5.45
28	B	Aleksandr Averbukh	Israel	—	—	xxo	—	xxx	5.45
	B	Kevin Rans	Belgium	—	o	xxo	xxx	—	5.45
30	B	Štěpán Janáček	Czech Republic	o	o	—	xxx	—	5.30
	B	Dominic Johnson	Saint Lucia	—	o	xxx	—		5.30
32	A	Jurij Rovan	Slovenia	xx-	o	xxx	—		5.30
—	B	Lázaro Borges	Cuba	—	xxx	—			No mark
	A	Germán Chiaraviglio	Argentina	—	xxx	—			No mark
	A	Iliyan Efremov	Bulgaria	xxx	—				No mark
	A	Kim Yoo-Suk	South Korea	—	xxx	—			No mark
	A	Steven Lewis	Great Britain	—	—	xxx	—		No mark
	A	Brad Walker	United States	—	—	—	—	xxx	No mark

Final

The final was held on Friday, 22 August 2008.^[6] Denys Yurchenko of Ukraine originally finished third, but in November 2016, it was announced that he tested positive for dehydrochlormethyltestosterone.^[1]

Rank	Athlete	Nation	5.45	5.60	5.70	5.75	5.80	5.85	5.90	5.96	Height	Notes
	Steven Hooker	Australia	—	o	—	—	xxo	xxo	xxo	xxo	5.96	OR
	Yevgeny Lukyanenko	Russia	—	xxo	o	—	o	xxo	xxx	—	5.85
	Derek Miles	United States	o	xxo	xo	—	xxx	—			5.70
4	Dmitry Starodubtsev	Russia	xxo	xxo	xo	—	xxx	—			5.70
5	Danny Ecker	Germany	xo	—	xxo	xxx	—				5.70
6	Jérôme Clavier	France	xo	o	xxx	—					5.60
7	Raphael Holzdeppe	Germany	o	xo	xxx	—					5.60
8	Igor Pavlov	Russia	—	xxo	—	xxx	—				5.60
9	Jan Kudlička	Czech Republic	o	xxx	—						5.45
10	Przemysław Czerwiński	Poland	xo	xxx	—						5.45
—	Giuseppe Gibilisco	Italy	xxx	—							NM
	Leonid Andreev	Uzbekistan	xxx	—							NM
3	Denys Yurchenko	Ukraine	xxo	xo	o	—					5.70	DPG

References

• sports-reference