| Women's pole vault at the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Venue | Oregon Convention Center | |||||||||
| Dates | March 17 | |||||||||
| Competitors | 9 from 7 nations | |||||||||
| Winning height | 4.90 | |||||||||
| Medalists | ||||||||||
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| Events at the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships  | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Track events | ||||
| 60 m | men | women | ||
| 400 m | men | women | ||
| 800 m | men | women | ||
| 1500 m | men | women | ||
| 3000 m | men | women | ||
| 60 m hurdles | men | women | ||
| 4×400 m relay | men | women | ||
| Field events | ||||
| High jump | men | women | ||
| Pole vault | men | women | ||
| Long jump | men | women | ||
| Triple jump | men | women | ||
| Shot put | men | women | ||
| Combined events | ||||
| Pentathlon | women | |||
| Heptathlon | men | |||
| Exhibition events | ||||
| Masters 800 m | men | women | ||
The women's pole vault at the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships took place on March 17, 2016. [1] [2] Jennifer Suhr of the United States won gold.
Pole vaulting is a track and field event in which a person uses a long flexible pole as an aid to jump over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the ancient Greeks, Cretans and Celts. It has been a full medal event at the Olympic Games since 1896 for men and since 2000 for women.
The 16th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics were held between March 17 and 20, 2016 in Portland, Oregon, United States.
Contents
The men's and women's pole vault competition were the only events on the opening day. They were conducted simultaneously with two parallel runways down the center of the arena. The women's entrants included eight of the top 20 vaulters in history, most of them peaking in the weeks before the competition. One day after her 35th birthday, Fabiana Murer improved upon the listed Masters W35 world record by clearing 4.60. At 4.70, Eliza McCartney set her indoor New Zealand National Record, but barely a footnote considering she had cleared 4.80 at her outdoor national championships just 12 days earlier. She passed her next jump to that same 4.80 mark. At 4.75, the world record holder (improved earlier this season) Jenn Suhr took only her second attempt of the competition to tie for the lead with Ekaterini Stefanidi, who had jumped clean at 5 heights. Nicole Büchler missed twice at 4.75 and put all her marbles on a final attempt at a personal best 4.80. She made it, setting the Swiss National Record. Sandi Morris also made it on her first attempt and Stefanidi kept her perfect streak going. At 4.85, Stefanidi and Büchler failed while both Americans Morris and Suhr were successful. Having nothing to gain at 4.85 Stefanidi and Büchler took their remaining attempts at 4.90. After everyone else failed at 4.90, Suhr cleared it on only her fourth attempt of the competition which ultimately gave her the gold. With silver confirmed, Morris took her last attempt at 4.95 but after it failed, Suhr packed up her poles. Stefanidi's perfect round until 4.80 gave her the bronze.
Fabiana de Almeida Murer is a retired Brazilian pole vaulter. She holds the South American record in the event with an indoor best of 4.82 m and an outdoor best of 4.87 m, making her the fourth highest vaulter ever at the time, now the eighth. She won the gold medal at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics, at the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships and also won at the 2007 Pan American Games. Murer represented Brazil at the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics. She is a four-time South American Champion with wins in 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2011. Murer was coached by both the Ukrainian Vitaly Petrov, who managed the world record holders Sergei Bubka and Yelena Isinbayeva, and her husband, Élson Miranda de Souza, a former vaulter himself.
Eliza McCartney is a New Zealand track and field athlete who competes in the pole vault and won the bronze medal in this event at the 2016 Summer Olympics. She is the current New Zealand and Oceania record holder at 4.94 m, and is the outdoor world junior record holder at 4.64 m. She also won the silver medal at the Summer Universiade in 2015. In 2018, she placed second at the Commonwealth Games.
Jennifer "Jenn" Suhr is an American pole vaulter. She has been an Olympic and World champion, has been ranked #1 in the World, has been the #1 American pole vaulter since 2006, and has won a total of 17 US National Championships. She holds the world indoor pole vault record at 5.03 m. She holds the American women's pole vault record indoors. In 2008, she won the U.S. Olympic trials, setting an American record of 4.92 m and won a silver medal in the Beijing Olympics. She won the gold medal at the London Olympics on August 6, 2012. Track & Field News named her American Female Athlete of the Year for 2008.
