Three Jumps. That’s all it took for World silver medallist Brad Walker to become the 2005 World Athletics Final Pole Vault champion this evening in what resulted in an uneventful competition.
The American who improved his personal best to 5.96m a few weeks ago in Rovereto won with a first time clearance at 5.86m as every other competitor had already been eliminated. He then went on and took three unsuccessful attempts at a would-be World season best 6.04m.
Germany’s Tim Lobinger took second with a 5.70m performance while former World champion Giuseppe Gibilisco was third (5.60m) on count-back.
The first casualty of the competition was World champion Rens Blom who struggled at the opening height of 5.45m only managing to go clear with his third jump. The surprise winner in Helsinki had another two misses at 5.60m and decided against taking his third attempt.
He later declared that he felt a cramp in his left leg and didn’t want to take any risk.
The turning point of the competition was when the bar was moved up to 5.70m, a height too many for European Indoor champion Igor Pavlov and Olympic champion Tim Mack. Walker and Lobinger cleared with their first try.
At 5.78m the final selection was made with Gibilisco and Stevenson, who had both passed the previous height, failing just like American Derek Miles (two misses as 5.70m) and Lobinger.
The only one to make an intelligent tactical decision tonight was Walker who passed 5.78m, watched peacefully as every one else failed and then cruised over the winning bar of 5.86m.
LA
