Men’s pole vault final
Olympic champion Jean Galfione of France became only the fourth man to ever clear 6.0 metres in the most exciting – and ultimately controversial event of the day.
With the bar at 5.85 there were four men still in contention – Danny Ecker of Germany, Galfione, defending champion Igor Potapovich and US record holder Jeff Hartwig of the USA. Ecker cleared first time while Galfione and Hartwig needed three attempts and Potapovich passed. At 5.90, Ecker, Galfione and Potapovich failed before Hartwig soared well clear of the bar. Ecker was then eliminated and Galfione and Potapovich failed again. The latter passed with his remaining vault but Galfione tried ... and made it. At 5.95 the Frenchman and Kazak failed but Hartwig found another excellent vault and cleared the bar easily. Galfione passed and the bar was then raised to 6.00. It seemed as if the American was destined to win. But after both athletes failed their first attempts it was the Frenchman who cleared first. Although to the naked eye there seemed to be nothing amiss a slow motion video replay revealed that Galfione touched the bar with his hand. Under IAAF rule 172.6 it states: "it is illegal if an athlete replaced deliberately with his hands or fingers a bar which is about to fall off the supports."
The event was then held up as a discussion went on by side of the vaulting mat and an announcement was even made that Galfione’s effort had been ruled out ... to the noisy disapproval of the crowd, since Galfione would have then been out of the competition and Hartwig crowned as champion. Yet in fact, an official had simply queried the clearance and brought it to the attention of the event referee, who confirmed there had been nothing wrong with the vault. There was later an official protest from the USA Team but this was rejected – The jury stated that "The appeal is rejected after careful analysis of the slow motion images of the vault, the jury concluded that rule 172.6 (d) has not been violated, therefore there is no reason to change the referee’s decision."
Hartwig failed three times at 6.00, before Galfione did the same thing at 6.05. The bronze went to Ecker.
Gold Medallist - GALFIONE Jean (FRA)
"6 meters! How can you beat that feeling. Even the confusion and the doubt
surrounding the controversy about whether I put the bar back on my way down from my jump,
cannot dull my feeling of elation.
To the incident itself I know the officials looked at it on video but I really did not
place the bar back. Yes of course it upset my concentration and this certainly upset my
attempt on 6.05 because as I jumped I did not know for sure whether I had the gold or
silver. So it may have cost me an even greater height today."
Silver Medallist - HARTWIG Jeff (USA)
"I had a great day, but unfortunately because of the Galfione incident I was held
up. At this point I was on the streak which unfortunately came to an end. The whole
confusion took the crowd out of it, it took me out of it and I lost all the momentum. I
did not even know if I was supposed to jump, because the runway was closed. My jump of
5.95 is still American record, so that makes me happy, but otherwise the competition was
very disturbing."
Bronze Medallist - ECKER Danny (GER )
"I started off very strong jumping everything of my first attempt and then all of
a sudden I came to a halt. Despite of that I am very happy, and I cannot complain. This is
my first world championships and I came third so that was great. About the Galfione
incident, I do not think that you could really tell if he actually touched the bar. If he
did it should not have counted, but who is to say?"
