2017 World Athletics Championships / Men's pole vault

2017 World Athletics Championships
discipline	Men's pole vault
city	London
place	Olympic Stadium London
Attendees	29 athletes from 19 countries
Competition phase	August 6, 2017 (qualification) August 8, 2017 (final)
Medalist
gold	Sam Kendricks ( USA )
silver	Piotr Lisek ( POL )
bronze	Renaud Lavillenie ( FRA )

World Champion Sam Kendricks

The men's pole vault at the 2017 World Athletics Championships took place on August 6-8, 2017 in London , United Kingdom .

The American Sam Kendricks won . The Pole Piotr Lisek was vice world champion. Bronze went to the Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie .

Records

World record	Renaud Lavillenie	6.16 m	Donetsk , Ukraine	15th February 2014
Championship record	Dmitri Markov	6.05 m	World Cup in Edmonton , Canada	August 9, 2001

qualification

The Czech Jan Kudlička was eliminated from the qualification with a jump of 5.45 m

The Greek Emmanouil Karális was 5.45 m not enough to take part in the final

The Frenchman Valentin Lavillenie had a failed attempt at 5.60 m, which cost him the final qualification

Without a valid attempt, the Dutchman Menno Vloon was eliminated from the qualification

August 4, 2017, 10:40 a.m. local time (11:40 a.m. CEST )

The athletes competed in two groups for a qualifying round. The height for the direct final qualification was 5.75 m. When it became clear that 5.70 m would be sufficient for participation in the finals, none of the jumpers even attempted the required qualification level. The final field was filled with the best twelve athletes from both groups - highlighted in light green. After all, a jump of 5.60 m without any previous unsuccessful attempt was sufficient to make it into the final.

Group A

space	athlete	country	5.30	5.45	5.60	5.70	Height (m)
1	Renaud Lavillenie	France	-	-	O	O	5.70
	Piotr Lisek	Poland	O	O	O	O	5.70
3	Axel Chapelle	France	xo	O	O	xxo	5.70
4th	Raphael Holzdeppe	Germany	-	O	xo	xxo	5.70
5	Armand Duplantis	Sweden	xxo	xo	xo	xxo	5.70
6th	Xue Changrui	People's Republic of China	-	xo	O	xxx	5.60
7th	Andrew Irwin	United States	xxo	O	xo	xxx	5.60
8th	Adrian Vallés	Spain	xxo	xo	xo	xxx	5.60
9	Wladyslaw Malychin	Ukraine	xxo	O	xxo	xxx	5.60
10	Jan Kudlička	Czech Republic	-	O	xxx		5.45
11	Germán Chiaraviglio	Argentina	xo	O	xxx		5.45
12	Emmanouil Karalis	Greece	xxo	O	xxx		5.45
13	Ilya Mudrow	Authorized Neutral Athletes	O	xo	xxx		5.45
	Ivan Horvat	Croatia	O	xo	xxx		5.45
15th	Seito Yamamoto	Japan	O	xxx			5.30

Group B

space	athlete	country	5.30	5.45	5.60	5.70	Height (m)
1	Sam Kendricks	United States	O	O	xxo	O	5.70
2	Shawnacy Barber	Canada	O	O	O	xxo	5.70
3	Paweł Wojciechowski	Poland	-	O	xxo	xx o	5.70
4th	Arnaud Art	Belgium	O	O	O	xxx	5.60
5	Kurtis Marshal	Australia	O	xxo	O	xxx	5.60
	Yao Jie	People's Republic of China	O	xxo	O	xxx	5.60
7th	Christopher Nilsen	United States	O	O	xo	xxx	5.60
8th	Valentin Lavillenie	France	-	xo	xo	xxx	5.60
9	Hiroki Ogita	Japan	O	O	xxx		5.45
10	Kévin Menaldo	France	-	xo	xxx		5.45
11	Michal Balner	Czech Republic	xo	xxo	xxx		5.45
NM	Igor Bychkov	Ukraine	xxx				without height
	Diogo Ferreira	Portugal	xxx
	Menno Vloon	Netherlands	-	x–	-	R.

final

August 4, 2017, 7:35 p.m. local time (8:35 p.m. CEST )

The favorite was the French world record holder , Olympic champion in 2012 and Olympic runner-up in 2016, Renaud Lavillenie. The Frenchman still lacked the world championship title in his otherwise very successful career. One of his main competitors, the surprise Olympic champion of 2016 Thiago Braz da Silva from Brazil, was absent here in London . But there were still strong opponents for Lavillenie. They included the bronze medalist from 2016 Sam Kendricks from the USA, the Canadian world champion from 2015 Shawnacy Barber, the German world champion from 2013 and runner-up world champion from 2015 Raphael Holzdeppe as well as the two Polish world championship thirds from 2015 Paweł Wojciechowski and Piotr Lisek.

A first decisive phase began at the jump height of 5.75 m. Holzdeppe was already eliminated without a valid jump. Eight pole vaulters were still in the competition. With Kendricks, Lavillenie, the Chinese Xue Changrui, Wojciechowski and the French Axel Chapelle, there were five athletes without a previous failed attempt. The Australian Kurtis Marschall had one failed jump behind him, Lisek and Barber had two failed jumps each. For three of these athletes, this time 5.75 m was too high. Axel Chapelle took sixth place, Kurtis Marschall came in seventh and defending champion Shawnacy Barber had to be content with eighth. Except for Wojciechowski, all other jumpers had mastered 5.75 m with their first jumps, the Pole was then successful with his second attempt.

Kendricks and Changrui jumped the 5.82 m that had now been placed the first time, while Lisek, Lavillenie and Wojciechowski saved their remaining attempts after each one failed jump for the next height of 5.89 m. At this height it was all about the medals. Kendricks was also confident here and conquered the height with the first jump. But Lisek also stayed in the race after being successful on the first attempt. Lavillenie then followed suit with the last remaining jump, while Changrui and Wojciechowski failed at this height. Xue Changrui was fourth, Paweł Wojciechowski was fifth.

The medal winners had been decided, now it was time to determine their order. The new jump height was 5.95 m. Now all the athletes had a hard time. Lisek tore three times and was eliminated. Lavillenie and Kendricks also initially had two failed attempts each. With his third jump, Kendricks was successful and was thus still at the top. Lavillenie then saved his last remaining attempt for the next height of 6.01 m. Both the French and the American failed on their first attempts, so the decision had been made, because Lavillenie was no longer in the race and was third. Vice world champion was Piotr Lisek. Both athletes had jumped 5.89 m, Lisek with his first and Lavillenie with his second jump. Now that Sam Kendricks was established as world champion, he refrained from further attempts.

space	athlete	country	5.50	5.65	5.75	5.82	5.89	5.95	6.01	Height (m)
	Sam Kendricks	United States	O	O	O	O	O	xxo	x R	5.95
	Piotr Lisek	Poland	O	xxo	O	x–	O	xxx		5.89
	Renaud Lavillenie	France	-	O	O	x–	xo	xx–	x	5.89 SB
4th	Xue Changrui	People's Republic of China	O	O	O	O	xxx			5.82 NO
5	Paweł Wojciechowski	Poland	O	O	xo	x–	xx			5.75
6th	Axel Chapelle	France	O	O	xxx					5.65
7th	Kurtis Marshal	Australia	xo	O	xxx					5.65
8th	Shawnacy Barber	Canada	xo	xxo	xxx					5.65
9	Armand Duplantis	Sweden	O	xxx						5.50
NM	Arnaud Art	Belgium	xxx							without height
	Raphael Holzdeppe	Germany	xxx
	Yao Jie	People's Republic of China	xxx

• 

  World Champion Sam Kendricks, USA

• 

  Vice World Champion Piotr Lisek, Poland

• 

  Bronze medalist Renaud Lavillenie from France

• 

  The Chinese Xue Changrui finished fourth

• 

  The Pole Paweł Wojciechowski Powell came in fifth

• 

  Sixth place for the Frenchman Axel Chapelle

• 

  Defending champion Shawnacy Barber from Canada had to be satisfied with eighth place this time

• 

  The Swede Armand Duplantis finished ninth in this final

• 

  The Belgian Arnaud Art remained without a valid in the final

• 

  The German vice world champion of 2015 and world champion of 2013 Raphael Holzdeppe did not produce a valid jump in the final

• 

  The third athlete without a height in the final was Yao Jie from China

Web links and sources

• Homepage for the 2017 World Championships, men's pole vault on the IAAF website , accessed on December 1, 2018
• Results of the 2017 World Athletics Championships from Leichtathletik.de, accessed on December 1, 2018
• Reports on the 2017 World Championships at Leichtathletik.de, accessed on December 1, 2018

Video

• WCH London 2017 Highlights - Pole vault - Men - Final - Kendricks wins on youtube.com, published August 9, 2017, accessed December 1, 2018