1908 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Pole Vault (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	Pole vault
gender	Men
place	White City Stadium
Attendees	14 athletes from 7 countries
Competition phase	July 24, 1908
Medalist
gold	Edward Cook ( USA )
	Alfred Gilbert ( USA )
bronze	Charles Jacobs ( USA )
	Bruno Söderström ( SWE )
	Edward Archibald ( CAN )

The men's pole vault at the 1908 London Olympics was decided on July 24, 1908 at the White City Stadium . On the morning of the same day, a qualification took place from which eight jumpers qualified for the competition. The last time it was allowed to jump with the "climbing technique". The systems did not correspond to the state of their time. There was no puncture point for the stick and no mats or bales of straw to cushion the athletes' fall after the jump.

There were two Olympic champions in this competition. The Americans Edward Cook and Alfred Gilbert shared first place. The bronze medal was even awarded three times, shared third place went to the US-American Charles Jacobs , the Swede Bruno Söderström and the Canadian Edward Archibald .

Records

The world records were still unofficial back then. With regard to the Olympic record , the question arises whether the Athens interludes should be included or not. Both variants are taken into account in the table below.

World record	3.90 m	United States	Walter Dray	Danbury ( USA ), June 12, 1908
Olympic record - counting without interludes	3.50 m	United States	Charles Dvorak	St. Louis Finale ( USA ), September 3, 1904
Olympic record - counting with interludes	3.50 m	United States	Charles Dvorak	St. Louis Finale ( USA ), September 3, 1904
		France	Fernand Gonder	Athens Final ( GRE ), April 25, 1906

The following records were broken or set in this discipline at the 1908 Olympic Games:

OR	3.58 m	Sweden	Bruno Söderström	Qualification, group A
ORe	3.58 m	Canada	Edward Archibald	Qualification, group B
OR	3.66 m	United States	Alfred Gilbert
	3.71 m	United States	Edward Cook
ORe	3.71 m	United States	Edward Cook	final
		United States	Alfred Gilbert

Results

qualification

The qualification was held in three staggered groups. The results of these groups were combined. Finally, all jumpers who had crossed 3.35 m qualified for the final fight.

In contrast to today, the performance achieved in the qualification was taken into account in the evaluation of the final result.

Group A

athlete	country	Height (m)
Bruno Söderström	Sweden	3.58 OR
Charles Jacobs	United States	3.50
Stefanos Koundouriotis	Greece	3.27
Bram Evers	Netherlands	2.82

Group B

athlete	country	Height (m)
Edward Cook	United States	3.71 OR
Alfred Gilbert	United States	3.66
Edward Archibald	Canada	3.58
Georgios Banikas	Greece	3.43
Robert Pascarel	France	3.20

In the course of the usual increase in altitude, Edward Archibald and Alfred Gilbert had also jumped Olympic records .

Group C

athlete	country	Height (m)
Samuel Bellah	United States	3.43
Kálmán Szathmáry	Hungary	3.35
Carl Silfverstrand	Sweden	3.20
Thomas Jackson	United States	3.05
Gaston Koëger	France
Coen van Veenhuijsen	Netherlands	2.89

final

space	athlete	country	Height (m)
1	Edward Cook	United States	3.71 ORe
	Alfred Gilbert	United States	3.71 ORe
3	Charles Jacobs	United States	3.58
	Bruno Söderström	Sweden
	Edward Archibald	Canada
6th	Georgios Banikas	Greece	3.50
	Samuel Bellah	United States
8th	Kálmán Szathmáry	Hungary	3.35

If the participants had jumped better heights in the qualification than in the final, they remained in the ranking. The end of the competition was delayed considerably because of the events at the finish line of the marathon. Therefore, there were no stabbing fights, the medals and placements were divided several times. No information is known about the process and the selected jump heights of the individual athletes. The current world record holder Walter Dray from the United States did not start .

Olympic champion Edward Cook was only eighteen years old and one of the youngest gold medalists at these games. Alfred Gilbert, who shared the victory with Cook, was 24 years old.

• 

  The American Edward Cook, one of the two Olympic champions

• 

  Alfred Gilbert, USA, also won gold

• 

  The Swede Bruno Söderström, one of three bronze medalists

• 

  The American Sam Bellah took sixth place together with the Greek Georgios Banikas

• 

  The Swede Carl Silfverstrand was eliminated in the qualification

literature

• Volker Kluge , Olympic Summer Games - The Chronicle I, Berlin 1997 ( ISBN 3-328-00715-6 )
• Ekkehard zur Megede , The history of Olympic athletics, Volume 1: 1896–1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970

Web links

• Sports-Reference, Athletics at the 1908 London Summer Games: Men's Pole Vault , accessed August 30, 2018
• Olympic Games London 1908, Athletics , IOC page on athletics at the 1908 Olympic Games at olympic.org, English, accessed 30 August 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896–1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, p. 86
2. ↑ Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896–1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, p. 85