Posted: February 24, 2005

Athletics: Bubka: 'Men Should Have Jumped 6.30 [20-8] By Now.'

By Bob Ramsak, Track Profile

(c) 2004 Track Profile all rights reserved TrackProfile.com

Next July 31st, Sergey Bubka’s 6.14 [20-1 3/4] world record in the pole vault will celebrate its 11th anniversary. And it’s a record that Bubka, a six-time world champion in the event, is quite surprised still stands.

"It’s a little bit of a surprise for me why [vaulters] are not moving a little bit," Bubka said, speaking frankly. "I hope that they will improve."

Bubka set his first record outdoors on May 26, 1984 with a first attempt clearance scaled 5.85 [19-2 1/2 ]. He went on to set 16 more outdoors, and 10 indoors, including his 6.15 [20-2] in Donetsk in 1993, still the highest vault ever.

"6.15 in not the limit of human possibilities. It’s not at all the limit of athletics performance. Normally, in all these years, men should have jumped 6.30 [20-8] by now."

While 11 others have cleared the still-formidable six-meter barrier since Bubka broke that barrier in 1985, only two others have cleared 6.05 [19-10 ¼]. That gap and longevity of his dominance, Bubka believes, is primarily due to coaching.

"I think coaches should think more about the technical aspects, That is for me the main question," Bubka said. "Physically, the athletes are very strong. The speed, the gymnastics, the capacity is good. But only how they transform energy from your body to the pole - this is the technical part."

That "technical part" is something Bubka said his coach Vitaliy Petrov had mastered.

"If they can look a little bit more in detail, what I brought with my coach Vitaliy Petrov, and with my coaches from the same school, they will find the difference."

Bubka believes the current women’s record holder and Olympic champion Yelena Isinbayeva’s coach, Yevgeny Trofimov, has keyed in on that difference as well.

"You can compare Isinbayeva, she is close to our school. Her coach Trofimov is always very near to our school. And this is again to show that were on the right track. If they try to come back and gain this knowledge, they will be able to be much higher and more successful."

Bubka seems to have tired of the question: how long will his record last?

"It seems that people around the world think that I destroyed the pole vault," he said, adding that he clearly disagrees with that sentiment. "I think that through my career, I developed the pole vault. And I really put my heart in this event."

Half-jokingly, Bubka pleaded with today’s top vaulters, issuing a challenge as well.

"Please, jump over my records. Because when people ask me, ‘When will the records be broken,’ it’s a very difficult question for me to answer. This has to come from you."

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