Men's Pole Vault qualifying
On a night when the Olympic dreams of Sergey Bubka and defending champion Jean Galfione died, two "new" Australians proved they have what it takes to challenge for gold in the final.
Dmitriy Markov and Viktor Chistiakov - the husband of the glamorous silver medallist in the women's event Tatinana Grigorieva - both cleared 5.70, as did three Germans, Tim Lobinger, Michael Stolle and Danny Ecker. All three medallists from last year's World Championships: Maksim Tarasov, Markov and Aleksandr Averbukh, all qualified for the final. South Africa's Okkert Brits broke his major championship jinx, qualifying easily with first time clearances at 5.55 and 5.65. US hopes Nick Hysong and Lawrence Johnson also made the cut.
36 year-old Bubka, who was hoping to add a second Olympic title to the six world titles he has amassed since 1983, made an ignominious exit after three failures at 5.75. The Olympic champion Galfione, troubled this season by an achilles problem and the after-effects of a collapsed lung, cleared 5.40 and 5.55 first time before making three failures at 5.65. Another notable casualty was Igor Potapovich, the 1997 world indoor champion.
