|
|
|
 |
|||||||||||||
 |
 |
Sergei Bubka attempted a glorious farewell, but sadly failed to make into the final. Instead, Nick Hysong of the USA claimed the men's pole vault gold medal with the performance of his life to give his country their first victory in this event since 1972. Up until that Olympics the Americans had claimed every single title since 1896 but at the Berlin Olympics they saw the mantle pass to the Europeans. Hysong, 29, ended that barren run, however, when he cleared 5.90 at the first attempt to beat his previous personal best of 5.85m. Lawrence Johnson gave the US even more to celebrate, grabbing silver behind his compatriot. Although both cleared the same height, as did bronze medal winner Maksim Tarasov of Russia and German Michael Stolle, who finished fourth, Hysong had less failures on a countback and so took gold. American Stacy Dragila made Olympic history by winning the first ever women's pole vault gold. Dragila, the world record holder, cleared 4.60 metres to beat Australia's Russian-born Tatiana Grigorieva into second place. The 29-year-old Californian set a new world's best at the US trials in July of 4.63m, but her efforts to raise that mark by a further two centimetres failed. World bronze medallist Grigorieva cleared 4.55m with Vala Flosadottir of Iceland third (4.50). |
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
