Vault records fall to Izzy O’Connor, Becky Sisley, Don Islett
From now on, Nadine O’Connor will be known here as Izzy. Olympic vault champ Yelena “Izzy” Isinbayeva of Russia has raised the open world record by a fraction dozens of times, and world champ Nadine is evoking her younger comrade. Two days ago, at the USATF-sanctioned Friday Night Vaults meet at San Diego State University, Nadine cleared 3.15 meters (10-4) to break her 6-day-old W65 world record of 3.13 (for which she was named USATF Athlete of the Week). “It was great fun to meet and hang out with all of those amazing young jumpers,” Nadine wrote me after Bud Held shared the news. “Several of the best in the world were there, as well as lots of young kids. They were all so encouraging to this old lady. I was proud of myself for dealing with the cool conditions and the pressure, something I am usually not good at.”
Nadine, 67, opened at 3.00 (9-10) and then went straight to 3.15.
“I was going to try to clear 3.20 (10-6), but the time required for resetting of standards and careful measuring takes too much time for the other jumpers,” Izzy writes. “That is why I am just going to try for a couple of centimeters at a time and then quit. It certainly isn’t because of all the big money involved!”
Nadine’s latest mark has an age-graded percentage of 128 percent. Her height corresponds to an open performance of 6.595 (21-7 1/2). This is nuts. As punishment, the next time World Masters Athletics rejiggers the Age-Graded Tables, they will exclude her mark from the formulas, since it’s an “outlier” that skews all other factors. This happens very rarely. Yekaterina Podkopayeva’s middle-distance marks got the same treatment from WMA.
Nadine, however, isn’t the old vault record-setter this season.
American records have toppled this month to Becky Sisley and Don Islett.
The Oregon Track Club Masters report that on May 16, “OTCM member Becky Sisley set an American Record of 2.20 meters (7′ 2 1/2″) in the Women’s 70-74 pole vault at the Junior Olympic/Open/Masters meet in Gresham. That . . . adds 1 1/2 inches to Leonore McDaniels‘ 11-year-old mark.” The listed W70 world record is 2.35 (7-8 1/2) by Japan’s Midori Yamamoto in 2004.
And Bubba Sparks reports from Texas: “At the annual Waterloo Lions event (Leander, Texas, north of Austin) – USATF sanctioned and officiated, Don Islett jumped 3.21 meters (10-6 1/4) for a new American M70 record. He had the record forms with him so hopefully it all works out. If not, he’ll get it at Oshkosh since he BARELY rolled off 3.36 (11-0 1/4). Needs a bigger pole and he might go 3.50 (11-5 3/4).” The listed M70 world record is 3.31 (10-10 1/4) by Britain’s Robert Brown in 2002.
At the rate Nadine is going, in three years she’ll blow by Becky and Midori and go straight for Robert Brown’s record.
Wouldn’t that be sumthin!
5 Responses
FR: David E. Ortman (M56) Seattle, WA
!_!
Hat’s off to all masters pole vaulters! ! As someone who struggled mightily with this event in high school (practicing with aluminum, non-bending poles was probably a root factor) and ignoring it entirely in college, I have only once again began to appreciate the sheer technical difficulty of this event after trying it once or twice after the age of 50.
I think there ought to be a separate pole vault event for those of us who can not get vertical: pole vaulting for distance instead of height.
For other interesting possible events using existing t&f equipment, see my July 2000 NMN column, reposted at:
http://www.geocities.com/ortmanmarchand/fs8.html
I thank Bubba for the kind words. There was a typo in the spelling of my name. Last name is Isett. He has provided me with many useful tips during my vaulting career.
Sorry about the misspelling, Don. I’ve corrected it.
Might U please write me privately? Your email address bounces.
Thankee.
Ken,
I just corrected my email address. I left air out of it.
Don Isett
Hi Don,
Great clip. Nice to see you are still at it. I worked with you at Microdynamics. Please tell Beverly hello. Take care.
Wendy
Leave a Reply