2004 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Pole Vault (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	Pole vault
gender	Men
Attendees	38 athletes from 25 countries
Competition location	Athens Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 25, 2004 (qualification) August 27, 2004 (final)
Medalist Timothy Mack ( USA )   Toby Stevenson ( USA )   Giuseppe Gibilisco ( ITA )

The men's pole vault at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens was held on August 25 and 27, 2004 in the Athens Olympic Stadium. 39 athletes took part.

The American Timothy Mack became Olympic champion . He won ahead of his compatriot Toby Stevenson and the Italian Giuseppe Gibilisco .

With Danny Ecker , Tim Lobinger and Lars Börgeling , three Germans started. All three made it to the final. Ecker was fifth, Börgeling sixth and Lobinger was eleventh.
Athletes from Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Current title holders

Olympic Champion 2000	Nick Hysong ( USA )	5.90 m	Sydney 2000
World Champion 2003	Giuseppe Gibilisco ( Italy )	5.90 m	Paris 2003
European Champion 2002	Alexander Awerbuch ( Israel )	5.85 m	Munich 2002
Pan American Champion 2003	Germán Chiaraviglio ( Argentina )	5.15 m	Santo Domingo 2003
Central America and Caribbean champions 2003	Pole vault not held as a championship competition		St. George’s 2003
South American Champion 2003	Ricardo Diez ( Venezuela )	5.20 m	Barquisimeto 2003
Asian champion 2003	Grigory Yegorov ( Kazakhstan )	2.23 m	Manila 2003
African champion 2004	Béchir Zaghouani ( Tunisia )	5.20 m	Brazzaville 2004
Oceania Champion 2002	JG Nel ( New Zealand )	4.56 m	Christchurch 2002

Existing records

World record	6.14 m	Serhij Bubka ( Ukraine )	Sestriere , Italy	July 27, 1993
Olympic record	5.92 m	Igor Trandenkow ( Russia )	Atlanta Final , USA	2nd August 1996
		Jean Galfione ( France )
		Andrei Tivontchik ( Germany )

Remarks:

• All times are based on Athens local time ( UTC + 2 ).
• All heights are given in meters (m).

qualification

August 25, 2004, 7:15 p.m.

The qualification was carried out in two groups. The qualification height for the direct entry into the final was 5.70 m. Since more than twelve athletes jumped this height with sixteen pole vaulters (highlighted in light blue), the final field was not filled any further.

Group A

space	Surname	nation	5.30	5.50	5.60	5.65	5.70	height	annotation
1	Lars Börgeling	Germany	-	O	-	O	O	5.70
	Pavel Gerasimov	Russia	-	O	O	-	O
	Ruslan Yeremenko	Russia	-	O	-	O	O
4th	Toby Stevenson	United States	-	xo	xo	-	O	5.70
	Ren Blom	Netherlands	-	xo	xo	-	O
6th	Giuseppe Gibilisco	Italy	-	O	-	x-	x o	5.70
7th	Daichi Sawano	Japan	O	xo	xo	xxo	x o	5.70
8th	Derek Miles	United States	-	O	O	-	xx o	5.70
9	Romain Mesnil	France	-	O	-	xx o	xxx	5.65
10	Occert Brits	South Africa	xo	-	O	-	xxx	5.60
11	Adam Ptáček	Poland	O	O	x-	x		5.50
	Vesa Rantanen	Finland	O	O	x-	xx
13	Jurij Rovan	Slovenia	xxo	x o	xxx			5.50
14th	Bukalov spas	Bulgaria	xo	xx o	xxx			5.50
15th	Steve Hooker	Australia	O	xxx				5.30
16	Yoo Suk Kim	South Korea	xx o	xxx				5.30
	Marios Evaggelou	Greece	xx o	xxx
ogV	Vadim Strogalev	Russia	-	xxx					without height
	Grigory Yegorov	Kazakhstan	xxx
	Liu Feiliang	People's Republic of China	xxx

Group B

space	Surname	nation	5.30	5.50	5.60	5.65	5.70	height	annotation
1	Alexander Awerbuch	Israel	-	O	-	O	O	5.70
	Paul Burgess	Australia	-	O	-	O	O
3	Igor Pavlov	Russia	-	O	xo	-	O	5.70
4th	Danny Ecker	Germany	-	xxo	-	-	O	5.70
5	Denys Yurchenko	Ukraine	-	xo	-	xxo	O	5.70
6th	Timothy Mack	United States	-	O	O	-	x o	5.70
7th	Tim Lobinger	Germany	-	O	xo	-	x o	5.70
8th	Oleksandr Korchmid	Ukraine	-	xo	O	xxo	x o	5.70
9	Matti Mononen	Finland	O	O	-	O	xxx	5.65
10	Patrik Kristiansson	Sweden	-	-	x o	-	xxx	5.60
11	Nick Buckfield	Great Britain	x	O	xx o	-	xxx	5.60
12	Dmitri Markov	Australia	-	O	-	xxx		5.50
13	Piotr Buciarski	Denmark	O	xx o	xxx			5.50
14th	Stepan Janecek	Czech Republic	O	xx-	x			5.30
	Javier Gazol	Spain	O	xxx
16	Nicolas Guigan	France	x o	xxx				5.30
	Adam Kolasa	Poland	x o	xxx
ogV	Giovanni Lanaro	Mexico	x						without height
	Ilijan Efremov	Bulgaria	xxx
DNS	Leonid Andreev	Uzbekistan

final

August 25, 2004, 7:30 p.m.

Sixteen athletes had qualified for the final, all of whom had skipped the qualification level. The three Americans, the three Germans and the three Ukrainians had reached the final. There were also two jumpers each from Russia and one participant each from Australia, Israel, Italy, Japan and the Netherlands.

There were a few favorites for this competition that were eligible for Olympic victory and medals. First of all there were the reigning world champion Giuseppe Gibilisco from Italy and the South African vice world champion Okkert Brits. The reigning European champion and vice world champion from 2001 Alexander Awerbuch from Israel started with very good prospects . In the wider circle of favorites, the three German participants Tim Lobinger in third place in the European Championship and fifth in the World Cup , Lars Börgeling as Vice European Champion and Danny Ecker. The Americans were difficult to assess. Timothy Mack and Derek Miles had finished fifth and sixth of them at last year's world championships. Of the favorites, Okkert Brits from South Africa and 2001 World Champion Dmitri Markov from Australia were eliminated in the preliminary round.

In the final there were seven participants in the competition with a jump height of 5.80 m. Without a failed attempt, the American Toby Stevenson was in the best position at this point. Mack, Gibilisco, and the Russian Igor Pavlov each had one failed jump, Ecker, Börgeling and Miles were burdened with two failed attempts. Stevenson, Mack, and Gibilisco left out the new jump height of 5.80 m. Of the other athletes, only Pavlov managed this height on his second attempt. Miles saved two more attempts for the next jump height after a failed jump, Börgeling did the same, but he had already torn the 5.80 m twice. Ecker failed three times and was eliminated. Now the bar was set at 5.85 m, the decisive phase began and all of the participants still in the competition approached this height. Gibilisco was the only one to be successful in the first attempt, Stevenson and Mack made it with their second jumps each. Miles and Börgeling failed with their remaining attempts and were eliminated. Pavlov saved one last attempt for the next height after two failed jumps.

Now 5.90 m were laid, which Stevenson and Mack each jumped the first time. Pavlov failed with his last remaining jump. Gibilisco tore the bar once, canceling his two remaining attempts. It was clear who would win the medals, only the order had to be determined. The decision was made at 5.95 m. Timothy Mack was the only successful jumper, with his third and final jump. For him that was the Olympic victory with a new Olympic record . He now let the coronation hang up 6.00 m, but failed three times. Toby Stevenson won the silver medal by jumping 5.90 m. Giuseppe Gibilisco, who was not successful with his remaining jumps, had 5.85 m to book and won bronze. Igor Pawlow came fourth ahead of the two Germans Danny Ecker and Lars Börgeling.

Timothy Mack won the 19th gold medal for the USA in the 25th Olympic pole vault final - in 1908 there had been two gold medals.

space	Surname	nation	5.40	5.55	5.65	5.75	5.80	5.85 m	5.90	5.95	6.00	Bottom line	annotation
1	Timothy Mack	United States	-	O	xo	O	-	xo	O	xx o	xxx	5.95	OR
2	Toby Stevenson	United States	-	O	O	O	-	xo	O	xxx		5.90
3	Giuseppe Gibilisco	Italy	-	xo	-	O	-	O	x-	xx		5.85
4th	Igor Pavlov	Russia	-	O	O	xo	x o	xx-	x			5.80
5	Danny Ecker	Germany	-	xxo	-	O	xxx					5.75
6th	Lars Börgeling	Germany	-		O	-	xx o	xx-	x			5.75
7th	Derek Miles	United States	-	O	xo	xx o	x-	xx				5.75
8th	Alexander Awerbuch	Israel	-	-	O	xxx						5.65
9	Denys Yurchenko	Ukraine	-	xo	O	xxx						5.65
	Ren Blom	Netherlands	-	xo	O	xxx
11	Paul Burgess	Australia	-	O	-	xxx						5.55
	Tim Lobinger	Germany	-	O	xxx
13	Pavel Gerasimov	Russia	-	x o	x-	x						5.55
	Daichi Sawano	Japan	O	x o	xxx
	Ruslan Yeremenko	Russia	-	x o	-	xxx
16	Oleksandr Korchmid	Ukraine	-	xx o	xxx							5.55

• 

  Bronze medalist Giuseppe Gibilisco, Italy, in 2009

• 

  The Olympic fifth Danny Ecker from Germany

• 

  Alexander Awerbuch from Israel was eighth in the Olympics

• 

  The German Tim Lobinger - here in 2005 - finished eleventh in the final

Web links

• SportsReference pole vault , accessed April 27, 2018
• Results on the IAAF website , accessed April 27, 2018
• Official Report of the XXVIIIth Olympiad, Results Athletics , English / French (PDF, 3054 KB), accessed on April 27, 2018

Video

• Athens Olympic, Athletics, Mens Pole Vault Final , published January 5, 2007 on youtube.com, accessed April 27, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF world records pole vault men , accessed on April 27, 2018