London 2012 pole vault Google Doodle

Today (August 04, 2012, Saturday) Google is featuring “Pole Vault” by showing the Doodle “London 2012 pole vault“. This is the Eighth Doodle for the London 2012 Summer Olympics.

It has been a full medal event at the Olympic Games since 1896 for men and 2000 for women.To achieve the maximum possible height, every aspect of the jump must be perfect, including the run-up.

Pole vaulting is a track and field event in which a person uses a long, flexible pole (which today is usually made either of fiberglass or carbon fiber) as an aid to leap over a bar.

The pole can be any length or diameter, but must be smooth. Athletes plant the end of the pole into a box at the base of the landing area, and use their speed, momentum and the bend of the pole to get themselves over.

Technique
Approach
Plant and take-off
Swing up
Extension
Turn

six metres club:
The so-called “six metres club”, which consists of pole vaulters who have reached at least 6 metres (19 ft 8¼ in[2]), is very prestigious. In 1985 Sergey Bubka became the first pole vaulter to clear 6 metres; he also holds the current outdoor world record at 6.14 metres, set on 31 July 1994 in Sestriere.

All “6 metres club” members are men. The only woman to exceed 5 metres is Russian women’s world-record holder Yelena Isinbayeva, who reached that height in 2005 and who has in total broken the women’s world-record (indoor and outdoor), 27 times, culminating in her current world record of 5.06 metres obtained in 2009 at Letzigrund in Zurich.
Fly-away

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