Pole vault is like this.
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It came on the heels of several impressive Canadian performances over the weekend at the World Championships after 20-year-old Andre de Grasse, running in a sterling 100-metre field along with Usain Bolt and Justin Gatlin, ran a personal best of 9.92 to win a bronze medal, tied with American Trayvon Bromell.
BEIJING (AP) – Shawn Barber was a little boy when he picked up the pole and copied what was his dad was doing, mostly because it looked like fun.
Barber was the only vaulter to clear 5.90 meters (19 feet, 4 1/4 inches) in his first attempt.
Now 21, having beaten Olympic gold medalist Renaud Lavillenie, Barber is the pole vault world champion.
Olympic champion and world record-holder Lavillenie could only clear 5.80 and shared bronze with Polish pair Piotr Lisek and Pawel Wojciechowski as his challenge fell flat again.
“You’re going to have nerves coming into a big meet like this but my whole goal was to keep my head down and remember to breathe”, Barber said.
Barber came into the event ranked third in the world this year.
Silver was won by Hanna Knyazyeva-Minenko who set an Israeli record with an effort of 14.78.
A student at Akron University in Ohio, Barber noted that his father had been a pole vaulter in Canada 25 years ago. He was raised in New Mexico and now calls Toronto home. “5.90 meters usually is not hard for me”.
“It’s a great experience, and I don’t think it’s sunk in quite yet, but I’m looking forward to the next couple of days when it does”, said Barber of his world championship.
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While Shawn said he entered the competition merely hoping to get on the podium, Barber Sr. said the outcome in Beijing “went just as planned”. “I wasn’t in position at all during the race”.
