Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's pole vault

Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
800 m		men		women
1500 m		men		women
5000 m		men		women
10,000 m		men		women
100 m hurdles				women
110 m hurdles		men
400 m hurdles		men		women
3000 m steeplechase		men
4×100 m relay		men		women
4×400 m relay		men		women
Road events
Marathon		men		women
20 km walk		men		women
50 km walk		men
Field events
Long jump		men		women
Triple jump		men		women
High jump		men		women
Pole vault		men		women
Shot put		men		women
Discus throw		men		women
Javelin throw		men		women
Hammer throw		men		women
Combined events
Heptathlon				women
Decathlon		men

The Men's Pole Vault event at the 2004 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program was held at the Athens Olympic Stadium on August 25 and August 27.

In a most gripping of pole vault finals, Timothy Mack of the United States jumped a personal best and an Olympic record (5.95 metres) to succeed his countryman Nick Hysong as Olympic champion. The winning jump came on Mack’s third attempt and lifted the gold medal from out of the pocket of his teammate Toby Stevenson, who had followed Mack’s first-attempt 5.90 metres clearance with one of his own to stay ahead on the countback and until that time was heading for the win. Mack ended the competition with three unsuccessful tries at 6.00 metres, the final one tantalizingly close.

The competition among the sixteen finalists had entered its fourth hour as Mack, Stevenson and reigning World champion Giuseppe Gibilisco separated themselves at 5.85 metres as the certain medallists. Only the ranking was left to be determined. As the two Americans each succeeded at 5.90 on their opening tries, Gibilisco failed and immediately passed to 5.95 metres, where he exited the competition with the bronze medal after two more misses.

All three eventual medallists had an anxious moment after they had jumped a first-round 5.75 metres and then elected to pass 5.80 metres. That allowed reigning World indoor champion Igor Pavlov a moment at the top of the standings after his PB-equalling 5.80 metres. But the Russian was not able to improve and finished in fourth place. Germany’s Danny Ecker and Lars Börgeling took fifth and sixth, respectively, with season-best jumps of 5.75.

Medalists

Gold	Timothy Mack (USA)
Silver	Toby Stevenson (USA)
Bronze	Giuseppe Gibilisco (ITA)

Schedule

• All times are Eastern European Time (UTC+2)

Qualification Round
Group A	Group B
25.08.2004 – 19:15h	25.08.2004 – 19:15h
Final Round
27.08.2004 – 20:00h

Abbreviations

Q	automatic qualification
q	qualification by rank
DNS	did not start
NM	no mark
WR	world record
AR	area record
OR	Olympic record
NR	national record
PB	personal best
SB	season best

Records

Standing records prior to the 2004 Summer Olympics
World Record	Sergey Bubka (UKR)	6.14 m	July 31, 1994	Sestrière, Italy
Olympic Record	Jean Galfione (FRA)	5.92 m	August 2, 1996	Atlanta, United States

Qualification

Heat 1

1. Lars Börgeling, Germany 5.70 m Q =SB
1. Pavel Gerasimov, Russia 5.70 m Q
1. Ruslan Yeremenko, Ukraine 5.70 m Q =SB
4. Toby Stevenson, United States 5.70 m Q
4. Rens Blom, Netherlands 5.70 m Q
6. Giuseppe Gibilisco, Italy 5.70 m Q
7. Daichi Sawano, Japan 5.70 m Q
8. Derek Miles, United States 5.70 m Q
9. Romain Mesnil, France 5.65 m
10. Okkert Brits, South Africa 5.60 m
11. Adam Ptacek, Czech Republic 5.50 m
11. Vesa Rantanen, Finland 5.50 m
13. Jure Rovan, Slovenia 5.50 m
14. Spas Bukhalov, Bulgaria 5.50 m
15. Steven Hooker, Australia 5.30 m
16. Kim Yoo-Suk, South Korea 5.30 m
16. Marios Evaggelou, Greece 5.30 m
Vadim Strogalev, Russia NM
Grigoriy Yegorov, Kazakhstan NM
Feiliang Liu, China NM

Heat 2

1. Aleksander Averbukh, Israel 5.70 m Q
1. Paul Burgess, Australia 5.70 m Q
3. Igor Pavlov, Russia 5.70 m Q
4. Danny Ecker, Germany 5.70 m Q
5. Denys Yurchenko, Ukraine 5.70 m Q
6. Timothy Mack, United States 5.70 m Q
7. Tim Lobinger, Germany 5.70 m Q
8. Oleksandr Korchmid, Ukraine 5.70 m Q =SB
9. Matti Mononen, Finland 5.65 m PB
10. Patrik Kristiansson, Sweden 5.60 m
11. Nick Buckfield, Great Britain 5.60 m
12. Dmitri Markov, Australia 5.50 m
13. Piotr Buciarski, Denmark 5.50 m
14. Stepan Janacek, Czech Republic 5.30 m
14. Javier Gazol, Spain 5.30 m
16. Nicolas Guigon, France 5.30 m
16. Adam Kolasa, Poland 5.30 m
Giovanni Lanaro, Mexico NM
Iliyan Efremov, Bulgaria NM
Leonid Andreev, Uzbekistan DNS

Final

Rank	Athlete	5.40	5.55	5.65	5.75	5.80	5.85	5.90	5.95	6.00	Result	Notes
	Timothy Mack (USA)		o	xo	o		xo	o	xxo	xxx	5.95	OR
	Toby Stevenson (USA)		o	o	o		xo	o	xxx		5.90
	Giuseppe Gibilisco (ITA)		xo		o	o		x	xx		5.85	SB

4. Igor Pavlov, Russia 5.80 m PB
5. Danny Ecker, Germany 5.75 m SB
6. Lars Börgeling, Germany 5.75 m SB
7. Derek Miles, United States 5.75 m
8. Aleksandr Averbukh, Israel 5.65 m
9. Denys Yurchenko, Ukraine 5.65 m
9. Rens Blom, Netherlands 5.65 m
11. Paul Burgess, Australia 5.55 m
11. Tim Lobinger, Germany 5.55 m
13. Pavel Gerasimov, Russia 5.55 m
13. Daichi Sawano, Japan 5.55 m
13. Ruslan Yeremenko, Ukraine 5.55 m
16. Oleksandr Korchmid, Ukraine 5.55 m

Legend

• Q - Qualified
• SB - Season Best
• =SB - Equal Season Best
• PB - Personal Best
• OR - Olympic Record

References

• Official Olympic Report
• 2004 Olympic Results
• sports-reference