1960 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Pole Vault (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	Pole vault
gender	Men
Attendees	31 athletes from 21 countries
Competition location	Stadio Olimpico
Competition phase	September 5, 1960 (qualification) September 7, 1960 (final)
Medalist Don Bragg ( USA )   Ron Morris ( USA )   Eeles Landström ( FIN )

The men's pole vault at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome was held on September 5 and 7, 1960 at the Stadio Olimpico . 31 athletes took part.

Olympic champion was the American Don Bragg , who won ahead of his compatriot Ron Morris . The bronze medal went to the Finn Eeles Landström .

While athletes from Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part, three Germans and one Swiss competed. The German Günter Malcher was able to qualify for the final and finished fifth there. His teammates Peter Laufer and Manfred Preußger retired, as did the Swiss Gérard Barras after qualifying.

Existing records

World record	4.80 m	Don Bragg ( USA )	Palo Alto , USA	July 2nd, 1960
Olympic record	4.56 m	Bob Richards ( USA )	Melbourne finals , Australia	November 26, 1956

Conducting the competition

The athletes competed in a qualifying round on September 5. The qualifying height was 4.40 meters. For all qualified jumpers the final took place on September 7th. With fewer than twelve qualified athletes, the final field was filled accordingly, which was the case here.

Note: The directly qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue, the jumpers qualified above the next best height are highlighted in light green.

Time schedule

September 5, 9:00 a.m .: Qualification
September 7, 1:30 p.m .: Final

qualification

Manfred Preußger (GER) failed in the qualification.

Date: September 5, 1960, 9:00 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	3.80 m	4.00 m	4.20 m	4.30 m	4.40 m	height	annotation
1	Christo Christow	Bulgaria	-	O	O	O	O	4.40 m
	Matti Sutinen	Finland
3	Don Bragg	United States	-	-	O	xo	O	4.40 m
4th	Eeles Landström	Finland	-	O	O	xo	O	4.40 m
	Günter Malcher	Germany	-	O	xo	O	O
6th	Rudolf Tomášek	Czechoslovakia	O	xo	O	O	O	4.40 m
7th	Leon Lukman	Yugoslavia	-	O	xxo	O	O	4.40 m
8th	Rolando Cruz	Puerto Rico	-	O	O	O	xx o	4.40 m
	Ihor Petrenko	Soviet Union
10	Jānis Krasovskis	Soviet Union	-	-	O	xo	xx o	4.40 m
11	Ron Morris	United States	-	-	O	O	xxx	4.30 m
12	Dimitar Khelbarov	Bulgaria	-	O	O	O	xxx	4.30 m
	Andrzej Krzesiński	Poland
12	Peter Laufer	Germany	-	O	O	-	xxx	4.20 m
	Manfred Preussger	Germany
	Roman Lešek	Yugoslavia	-	O	O	xxx		4.20 m
	Valbjörn Þorláksson	Iceland
18th	Dave Clark	United States	O	O	O	xxx		4.20 m
	Janusz Gronowski	Poland
	Georgios Roumbanis	Greece
	Victor Sillon	France
22nd	Noriaki Yasuda	Japan	-	xxo	O	xxx		4.20 m
23	Bjørn Andersen	Denmark	-	O	xxx			4.00 m
	Gérard Barras	Switzerland
	Raymond Van Dijck	Belgium
26th	Allah Ditta	Pakistan	xo	O	xxx			4.00 m
ogV	Owen Okundaye	Nigeria	-	xxx					without height
	Mohamed Abdullah	Iraq	xxx
	Orhan Altan	Turkey

final

Olympic Champion Don Bragg (USA)

Bronze went to the Finn Eeles Landström.

Date: September 7, 1960, 1:30 p.m.

Don Bragg, the world record holder from the USA, was the top favorite of the competition, the final of which lasted over six hours. Four jumpers had crossed the 4.55 m. In addition to Bragg and his compatriot Ron Morris, the Finnish European Champion from 1958 Eeles Landström and, to the surprise of the experts, the Puerto Rican Rolando Cruz were in the race. However, only the two US jumpers could cross the 4.60 m. Since Cruz needed a second attempt at the 4.55 m, the bronze medal went to the Finn.

Bragg jumped the 4.60 m in the first and Morris in the second attempt. At 4.70 m, Morris was eliminated, Bragg had made the height again in the first attempt. He let hang up on the new world record height of 4.82 m, but failed here.

It was astonishing that the Greek Olympic bronze medalist from 1956 Georgios Roumbanis not started his then so successfully used fiberglass rod and jumped like all other athletes with a metal rod - he failed to qualify. The use of the sticks made of the new, flexible material - which was not welcomed by everyone - began intensively after the games of Rome and nobody used the sticks made of conventional material anymore. Olympic champion Don Bragg was one of the opponents of the technical innovation, who saw irregular help and support.

In the fourteenth Olympic final, Donald Bragg won the fifteenth gold medal for the USA - in 1908 there had been two gold medals.

space	Surname	nation	4.00 m	4.20 m	4.30 m	4.40 m	4.50 m	4.55 m	4.60 m	4.70 m	4.82 m	Bottom line	annotation
1	Don Bragg	United States	-	-	O	xo	O	O	O	O	xxx	4.70 m	OR
2	Ron Morris	United States	-	-	O	O	xo	O	x o	xxx		4.60 m
3	Eeles Landström	Finland	-	O	-	xo	xo	O	xxx			4.55 m
4th	Rolando Cruz	Puerto Rico	O	O	O	O	O	x o	xxx			4.55 m
5	Günter Malcher	Germany	-	O	O	O	O	xxx				4.50 m
6th	Ihor Petrenko	Soviet Union	-	O	-	xxo	O	xxx				4.50 m
	Matti Sutinen	Finland
8th	Rudolf Tomášek	Czechoslovakia	O	O	O	xxo	O	xxx				4.50 m
9	Leon Lukman	Yugoslavia	O	O	O	O	xxx					4.40 m
10	Christo Christow	Bulgaria	-	xo	O	O	xxx					4.40 m
11	Dimitar Khelbarov	Bulgaria	-	O	O	xxx						4.30 m
12	Andrzej Krzesiński	Poland	O	O	O	xxx						4.30 m
13	Jānis Krasovskis	Soviet Union	-	-	x o	xxx						4.30 m

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, pp. 204–206

Videos

• 6'3 "Don Bragg Wins Pole Vault Gold Medal - Rome 1960 Olympics , published June 30, 2013 on youtube.com, accessed October 18, 2017

Web links

• SportsReference Pole Vault , accessed October 18, 2017
• Official report pp. 143-145, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 18, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ^ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 page 555 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Official Report of the 1960 Olympic Games , p. 64 (English) at library.la84.org (PDF), accessed on October 18, 2017
3. ↑ Official Report of the 1960 Olympic Games , p. 144 (English) at library.la84.org (PDF), accessed on October 18, 2017
4. ↑ Official Report of the 1960 Olympic Games , p. 145 (English) on library.la84.org (PDF), accessed on October 18, 2017
5. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)
6. ↑ Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, p. 205