1964 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Pole Vault (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	Pole vault
gender	Men
Attendees	32 athletes from 20 countries
Competition location	Tokyo Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	October 15, 1964 (qualification) October 17, 1964 (final)
Medalist Fred Hansen ( USA )   Wolfgang Reinhardt ( GER )   Klaus Lehnertz ( GER )

The men's pole vault at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo was held on October 15 and 17, 1964 in the Tokyo Olympic Stadium. 32 athletes took part.

The American Fred Hansen became Olympic champion . He won ahead of the two Germans Wolfgang Reinhardt and Klaus Lehnertz .

With Manfred Preußger , a third jumper from Germany reached the final, he was fourth. Werner Duttweiler from Switzerland failed because of the level of qualification. Jumpers from Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Existing records

World record	5.28 m	Fred Hansen ( USA )	Los Angeles , USA	July 25, 1964
Olympic record	4.70 m	Don Bragg ( USA )	Final of Rome , Italy	September 7, 1960

Conducting the competition

The athletes competed in a qualifying round on October 15. The required qualification height was 4.60 m. The finals for all jumpers took place on October 17th.

Time schedule

October 15, 1 p.m .: Qualification

October 17, 1 p.m .: Final

Note: All times are Tokyo local time (UTC + 9)

The best valid attempt is shown in bold

The athletes qualified for the next round are highlighted in light blue.

qualification

Date: October 15, 1964, 1 p.m.

Weather conditions: rain, 20–23 ° C, 42–59% humidity

space	Surname	nation	4.20 m	4.30 m	4.40 m	4.50 m	4.55 m	4.60 m	height	annotation
1	Hennadij Blesnizow	Soviet Union	-	-	-	-	-	O	4.60 m
	Fred Hansen	United States
	Billy Pemelton	United States
4th	Risto Ankio	Finland	-	-	-	-	-	O	4.60 m
	Igor field	Soviet Union
	Roman Lešek	Yugoslavia
	Pentti Nikula	Finland
	Wolfgang Reinhardt	Germany
	Rudolf Tomášek	Czechoslovakia
10	Yang Chuan-Kwang	Taiwan	-	-	O	O	-	O	4.60 m
	Hervé d'Encausse	France	O	-	O	-	-	O
12	Sergei Djomin	Soviet Union	-	-	xo	-	-	O	4.60 m
13	Klaus Lehnertz	Germany	-	-	xo	-	-	O	4.60 m
14th	Manfred Preussger	Germany	-	-	xxo	-	-	O	4.60 m
15th	Christos Papanikolaou	Greece	-	xo	-	xo	-	O	4.60 m
	Gerry Moro	Canada	xo	-	xo	-	-	O
17th	John Pennel	United States	-	-	-	-	-	x o	4.60 m
18th	Taisto Laitinen	Finland	-	-	O	-	-	x o	4.60 m
19th	Ignacio Sola	Spain	O	-	O	O	-	xx o	4.60 m
20th	Dave Stevenson	Great Britain	O	-	O	O	-	xxx	4.50 m
21st	Rolando Cruz	Puerto Rico	-	O	xxo	O	-	xxx	4.50 m
22nd	Hisao Morita	Japan	-	-	xxo	O	-	xxx	4.50 m
23	Werner Duttweiler	Switzerland	O	-	O	-	-	xxx	4.40 m
24	Yoshimasa Torii	Japan	O	-	x o	-	-	xxx	4.40 m
25th	Masashi Otsubo	Japan	O	-	xxx				4.20 m
	Renato Dionisi	Italy	O	xxx
27	Paul Coppejans	Belgium	xx o	-	xxx				4.20 m
ogV	Dimitar Khelbarov	Bulgaria	-	-	xxx					without height
	Włodzimierz Sokołowski	Poland
	Maurice Houvion	France	xxx

final

Date: October 17, 1964, 1 p.m.

Weather conditions: clear to cloudy, 19–22 ° C, 67–80% humidity

Since the introduction of the fiberglass rod in 1961, the world record had been improved by 40 centimeters. Among the strongest jumpers were the three Americans John Pennel as a former world record holder, his successor Fred Hansen and Brian Sternberg . However, Sternberg had suffered a cervical vertebra injury during training that almost completely paralyzed him, so that he had to give up his sport. Pennel was handicapped by a back injury sustained shortly before the Games. Although he reached the final, he only finished eleventh there.

13 of the 19 finalists mastered the current Olympic record of 4.70 m. Ten of them then jumped even higher. This leap in development was due to the new material of the rods used. At the 5-meter mark, the wheat was finally separated from the chaff. Only four participants, besides favorite Hansen, all three German starters, were successful at 5.00 meters. Manfred Preußger and Klaus Lehnertz failed at 5.05 m. Wolfgang Reinhardt jumped this height in the first attempt, Hansen left out. Reinhardt had three failed attempts at 5.10 m. Fred Hansen crossed the bar in the third and last attempt and thus secured the gold medal from Wolfgang Reinhardt. With the same amount, Klaus Lehnertz won the bronze medal ahead of Manfred Preußger due to the failed attempt rule.

The series of US winners in the pole vault remained unbroken in Tokyo . Fred Hansen was the 15th final of the 16 gold medalists from the United States - in 1908 were two gold medals were awarded.

Wolfgang Reinhardt and Klaus Lehnertz won the first German medals in this discipline.

space	Surname	nation	4.40 m	4.60 m	4.70 m	4.80 m	4.85 m	4.90 m	4.95 m	5.00 m	5.05 m	5.10 m	Bottom line	annotation
1	Fred Hansen	United States	-	-	O	O	O	-	-	O	-	xx o	5.10 m	OR
2	Wolfgang Reinhardt	Germany	xo	xo	-	xo	-	xo	-	O	O	xxx	5.05 m
3	Klaus Lehnertz	Germany	O	O	O	O	O	O	xo	O	xxx		5.00 m
4th	Manfred Preussger	Germany	-	xxo	-	O	-	O	-	O	xxx		5.00 m
5	Hennadij Blesnizow	Soviet Union	O	O	O	-	O	-	O	x--	xx		4.95 m
6th	Rudolf Tomášek	Czechoslovakia	-	O	O	xo	-	O	-	xx-	x		4.90 m
7th	Pentti Nikula	Finland	xo	xo	O	xxo	xo	O	xxx				4.90 m
8th	Billy Pemelton	United States	-	-	O	O	xxx						4.80 m
9	Igor field	Soviet Union	-	O	xxo	x o	-	xxx					4.80 m
10	Gerry Moro	Canada	O	xo	O	xxx							4.70 m
11	John Pennel	United States	-	-	x o	-	xxx						4.70 m
12	Risto Ankio	Finland	-	O	x o	xxx							4.70 m
13	Roman Lešek	Yugoslavia	O	xxo	x o	xxx							4.70 m
14th	Taisto Laitinen	Finland	O	O	xxx								4.60 m
15th	Sergei Djomin	Soviet Union	O	xxx									4.50 m
	Hervé d'Encausse	France
	Ignacio Sola	Spain
18th	Christos Papanikolaou	Greece	x o	xxx									4.40 m
ogV	Yang Chuan-Kwang	Taiwan	xxx											without height

Picture gallery

• 

  The German Manfred Preußger - here at the GDR championships in 1963 - came fourth

• 

  The Belgian Paul Coppejans was also eliminated from the qualification

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, pp. 274–276

Video

• The Complete Tokyo 1964 Olympics Film | Olympic History , range 29:47 min - 35:03 min, published November 8, 2013 on youtube.com, accessed October 28, 2017

Web links

• SportsReference Pole Vault , accessed October 28, 2017
• Official report of the Olympic Games 1964 p. 45f engl. (PDF), accessed on October 28, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 Page 555 (Engl.) ( Memento of 29 June 2011 at the Internet Archive ) retrieved on October 28, 2017
2. ↑ Official report of the 1964 Olympic Games ( memento of the original from June 30, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 17 (English) at library.la84.org (PDF), accessed on October 28, 2017 
3. ↑ Official report of the 1964 Olympic Games ( memento of the original from June 30, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 45f (English) from library.la84.org (PDF), accessed on October 28, 2017 
4. ↑ Official report of the 1964 Olympic Games ( memento of the original from June 30, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 46 (English) at library.la84.org (PDF), accessed on October 28, 2017 
5. ↑ SportsReference , accessed October 28, 2017