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SEPTEMBER 2018 ISSUE
CONTENTS r e b pte m
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FROM THE EDITOR
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FROM THE LIBERTY BRIDGE JUMP-OFF TO THE DIAMOND LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS
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MONDO DUPLANTIS: PROFESSIONAL CALIBER AMATEUR
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BRUCE CALDWELL: POLE VAULTING A PART OF HIS DNA
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Cover photo by Jeff Cohen
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FROM THE EDITOR Do you miss the summer nights and beaches yet? We know many of you are back to school, and you may think that all the fun is over, but new friends and new opportunity await. Before you know it, you will be training again and preparing yourself for the indoor track season. Many of you have already started lifting, running and more, so buckle your seatbelt and be ready for another season. This month will turn out to be an excellent month so sit tight and see what the magazine has to offer. But first, the news!
Pole Vault news, “Eliza McCartney withdraws from Diamond League pole vault finals with heel injury” Kiwi pole vault star Eliza McCartney gave it her best shot but has conceded defeat in her race for fitness to compete at the Diamond League finals in Zurich early Friday (NZT). (2018). (https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/ 106623933/eliza-mccartney-withdraws-fromdiamond-league-pole-vault-finals-with-heelinjury) “Pole vaulter Jenn Suhr’s season over due to medical issues” Jenn Suhr, the threetime Olympian from Riga, has ended her track and field season early due to medical issues. (2018). Retrieved from (https://www. democratandchronicle.com/story/sports/ 2018/08/28/jenn-suhr-olympic-pole-vaulterseason-over-medical-issues/1123729002/)
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On the cover, Armondo Duplantis! After the huge jump last month we would be crazy not to have this teenaged pole vault superstar on the cover of Vaulter Magazine. “A kid, surrounded by his idols, with not one but two nations of pole vault fans looking to see what he can do.” Soon we will see the day where Mondo set’s his limits and leads the rest of the sport down an unbeaten path. Good luck Mondo, we will be waiting to see what happens next! Good Samantha, well worth the read. From the Liberty Bridge Jump-Off to the Diamond League Championships Kreager Taber takes on a trek to see the results and feel the action. “ Katie Nageotte set a new NACAC record in the women’s pole vault, jumping 4.75 meters for the win.” I know that there were plenty of street vaults, summer meets and more, but Kreager chooses to start where she did. Next time we will have to hear about all the rest. Check us out next month when we bring another exciting issue to the sport. We have had to put forth a few detours as the jumping heads to higher limits.
Doug Bouma Editor, Vaulter Magazine - Vaulter Club Inc. editor@thevaultermag.com
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MOLLY CAUDERY (GBR) on the pole vault final in the IAAF World U20 Championship
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From the Liberty Bridge Jump-Off to the Diamond League Championships By: Kreager Taber
Katie Nageotte
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Late July and early August held the most exciting competitions that pole vault fans have seen in the 2018 outdoor track and field season. While Armand Duplantis, Timur Morgunov, and Renaud Lavillenie’s incredible jumps at the European Athletics Championships dominated discussions following August 12th, the pole vaulters of Team USA took home multiple titles at the North American, Central American, and Caribbean Athletics Association (NACAC) Senior Cham-
pionships in Toronto on the same weekend. Just two weeks before, Sandi Morris, Sam Kendricks, and Shawn Barber gave impressive performances in the Liberty Bridge Jump-off in Greenville, South Carolina, highlighted by Morris’s attempts at a would-be outdoor world record. These recent performances have given fans plenty of reasons to look forward to the approaching Diamond League Championships and IAAF World Athletics Championships.
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Sandi Morris and Shawn Barber came into NACACs following strong performances in the Liberty Bridge Jump Off in late July, where Morris jumped 4.95 meters for the win and went on to take solid attempts at 5.07 meters, a would-be outdoor world record. Sam Kendricks won the men’s competition with 5.80 meters, while Barber took second with a final height of 5.65 meters. Just a few weeks later, a new U20 world record was set by Armand Duplantis of Team Sweden with a jump of 6.05 meters. Duplantis won the competition, placing ahead of neutral athlete Timur Morgunov and France’s Renaud Lavillenie, who jumped 6.00 meters and 5.95 meters, respectively. Duplantis is the youngest athlete to ever claim a men’s field event title at the European Championships. On the women’s side, Katerina Stefanidi of Greece won with a jump of 4.85 meters, making her the first pole vaulter to win consecutive European titles. Her teammate Nikoleta Kiriakopoulou placed second with 4.80 meters, and Holly Bradshaw of Great Britain took third with 4.75 meters. Bradshaw’s third place finish marked her first outdoor medal at a major championship event. As the European Championships progressed in Berlin, the NACAC Senior Championships were taking place in Toronto.
Nikoleta Kiriakopoulou
Katie Nageotte set a new NACAC record in the women’s pole vault, jumping 4.75 meters for the win. This jump ties her season best, which she also cleared at the Monaco
Herculis Diamond League athletic competition in July. The women’s field consisted of Nageotte and Sandi Morris of Team USA, Yarisley Silva Rod of Team Cuba, Alisandra Negrete
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of Team Mexico, and Anicka Newell of Team Canada. Silva jumped 4.70 meters, good for second place, and Morris took third with a jump of 4.65 meters. Negrete entered the competition at 4.10 meters and then passed to 4.30, but failed to clear the height, while Newell did not clear her opening height of 4.40 meters. Scott Houston, the pole vault champion on the men’s side, jumped 5.45 meters, also a NACAC meet record. Only three jumpers competed in the men’s pole vault competition: Houston and Cole Walsh of Team USA, and Shawnacy Barber of Team Canada. Barber jumped 5.40 meters for second place, while Walsh did not clear his opening height of 5.30 meters. The recent success of the athletes at the NACAC Senior Championships and the European Athletics Championships will make the remainder of this outdoor track and field season extremely competitive. Only one regular Diamond League competition remains, and it will be held on August 18th in Birmingham. The Diamond League championships will then be held in Zürich on August 30th and Brussels on August 31st. The athletes that dominate the Diamond League score-
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cards largely mirror those that emerged at the top of the NACAC and European Championships. Athletes accumulate points for their performances at Diamond League meets throughout the season and the top twelve athletes progress to compete in the championships, meaning that the qualification lists for the meet will not finalized before the completion of the Müller Granx Prix in Birmingham. In the current men’s pole vault rankings, Sam Kendricks of Team USA tops the Diamond League rankings with 39 points and 4 event wins. In second, Barber has accumulated 23 points over the course of this season. Renaud Lavillenie of France is ranked third with 22 points and one event win, while Armand Duplantis, competing for Sweden, is in fourth with 21 points and one event win. Pawel Wojciechowski and Piotr Lisek of Poland are ranked fifth and sixth, respectively. Kurtis Marshall of Australia takes seventh with 14 points and Raphael Holzdeppe of Germany is ranked eighth with 11 points. Thiago Braz of Brazil and Konstantinos Filippides of Greece tie for ninth, and Stanley Joseph of France ranks eleventh. Rounding out the standings with twelfth is Timur Morgunov, the neutral athlete who cleared six meters
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Renaud Lavillenie
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to take second at the European Athletics Championships. For the women, Sandi Morris of Team USA leads the rankings with 32 points and two event wins. Anzhelika Sidorova, a neutral athlete, and Katerina Stefanidi of Greece have both achieved an event win and rank second and third. Katie Nageotte of Team USA ranks fourth with 21 total points, while Jenn Suhr, also of Team USA, ranks fifth with 19 points. Eliza McCartney of New Zealand is currently in sixth with 14 points. Yarisley Silva of Cuba and Holly Bradshaw of Great Britain both have 12 points and are ranked seventh and eighth, respectively. Angelica Bengtsson of Sweden has nine points and takes the current ninth place position, and Robeilys Peinado of Venezuela ranks tenth. Nikoleta Kiriakopoulou of Greece has the eleventh position, and Alysha Newman of Canada rounds out the top twelve. Stefanidi, Silva, Morris, Bradshaw, McCartney, Nageotte, Kiriakopoulou, and Bengtsson are set to compete in Birmingham, a field that boasts 30 international medals between the competitors. As the rosters are finalized for the Diamond League Championships and vaulters begin to focus their training to peak at the IAAF World Athletics Championships, it will be interesting to see what national, meet, and even world records are challenged by the athletes. If the Liberty Bridge Jump-Off, NACAC championships, and European Championships are any indication, the remainder of the 2018 outdoor season will be the best of the year.
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Sandi Morris Take Off
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MONDO DUPLANTIS: PROFESSIONAL CALIBER AMATEUR By Sam Kaplan
Instagram: @eat_sleep_pv_repeat
It seems like every time Mondo Duplantis picks up a pole, a world record is bound to be broken. He has the stats to rightfully back up this claim, owning age group world records dating back nearly ten years. Few have ever doubted that Mondo has the experience, family support, world class coaching, and skill to be one of the best. As he has proven year after year, breaking one age group record after another, his younger successes were not flukes or early career peaks. However,
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if there were any doubters left out there a year ago, this past season has forced them all to seriously reconsider that when Mondo declared back in 2017 that he’d “like to be the best to ever live,” he meant it.
The name Duplantis is not new to the pole vaulting world. Mondo’s father Greg owns a personal best of 5.80 that he set back in 1993. So when Mondo, like his two older brothers before him, took up the sport himself at the incredibly young age of
four, it just made sense. With the natural athleticism that comes from having a 19-foot jumper as a dad, and a Swedish heptathlon champion as a mom, it was not long before Mondo started to impress the world. At just seven years of age, Mondo soared 7’8” to set his first age group world record. As he grew, so did his marks, each year improving upon the corresponding age group world record. Today, Mondo owns the world record for every age from seven to twelve years old.
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Mondo at Tampere 2018 IAAF World U20 Championships press conference
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It seemed as though a 16 year old Mondo Duplantis had his world record glory as a child prodigy, and now as a sophomore in high school, needed to focus on simply maintaining himself at the top of his game, becoming Mondo Clearing the bar
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the best high school jumper of all time. His 18’ 0.5” jump at a high school meet in his home state of Louisiana marked the first time a high schooler exceeded 18 feet indoors, but Emmanouil Karalis of Greece soon
became the second, jumping a few centimeters higher. A few months later at the World U20 Championships, Mondo’s bronze medal proved he could compete with the world’s best high school seniors and college freshmen.
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To the average pole vault fan, Mondo looked like he was accomplishing his goals beautifully. He was becoming one of the best high school vaulters in the world, and he was on the path to become an outstanding professional someday.
Mondo has always stood out amongst his peers. However, his amazing marks have always put him in a weird place on the world scale. When compared to fellow amateur competitors his age, Mondo seemed light years ahead of the crowd, but his outstanding heights were rarely compared directly to any higher caliber vaulters. Even when he was compared to pros, it would always be when adjusted for age. But all of this changed when, within a year of jumping an 18’1” personal best, Mondo popped off 19’4.25” (5.90m) in April of 2017, making him, for the first time in his life, the owner of a senior record. With this outrageous outdoor PR, Mondo not only gained himself new American Junior and World Junior Records, but the Swedish National Record as well. For the first time, Mondo owned a record without an age group modifier. This jump shifted the world’s view on Mondo. No longer was he an
outstanding high schooler destined for greatness as a pro in the future; he was already a professional caliber athlete. And going into his first Diamond League season, that is exactly where he needed to be.
When outdoor season rolls around each May, track and field fans from around the world turn their attention to the Diamond League, a summer series where the best of the best vie for a spot in the championship to ultimately claim a title as best in the world that season. Athletes can pick and choose which meets work best for them, strategizing when to enter a competition, in order to enough points to qualify for the final. However, one meet, despite the fact that it is not Diamond League for pole vault, seems to draw in all of the top tier Diamond League vaulters simply for the love of the facility, crowd, and competition. Entries in the 2017 Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon included the likes of Polish superstars Pawel Wojciechowski and Piotr Lisek, the 2015 World Champion and runner up, Shawn Barber and Raphael Holzdeppe, and the bronze, silver, and gold medalists from the previous year’s Olympic Games, Sam
Kendricks, Renaud Lavillenie, and Thiago Braz da Silva, all three of whom have personal bests above six meters. Everyone in the competition had years of professional experience under their belts and the accolades to prove it. Everyone except the 17-yearold Swedish-American high school junior coming off a massive PR one month prior, taking the senior world stage for the first time. A kid, surrounded by his idols, with not one but two nations of pole vault fans looking to see what he can do. While for all of the other vaulters the meet was just a fun start to the Diamond League series, Mondo had to calm his excitement and nerves to prove to the world that not only could his best numbers stack up against the pros, but he could perform directly against them just as well. As the only competitor to put up three first attempt clears in a row, Mondo’s 5.71 (18’8.75”) fourth place finish had some doing double takes at the results sheet, some declaring that they knew he could do it all along, and everyone on edge to see what he would do next. Over a month later Mondo tested the waters at an actual Diamond League competition in Lausanne, Switzerland.
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Velocity Sport USA formally Kanstet USA Roll-Out Runways with VSS-1 IAAF Surface
Contact Bruce Caldwell 817-819-1472 Email bruce@velocitysport.us
The same VSS-1 Sport Surface used in Portland World Indoor Champs 2016 and the European Indoor Champs Serbia 2017, Available in the USA, now your School or Camp can Experience VSS-1 Pole Vault / Long Jump/Triple Jump runways. Available in 42” and 48” 50’ rolls List prices are $20.00 a linear ft. VSS-1 runways enhance your athletes’ running dynamics for practice and competitions with less fatigue, less Hammys, and reduced Shin Splints.
VSS-1 surface invented and formulated by Valeri Bukreyev 2-time Estonian Pole Vault Olympian 92 /96 and engineer of Kanstet Powered Portable Indoor Banked Tracks
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VSS-1 IAAF Certificate
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His 5.73 clearance was good for seventh place, proving late season league competition was when everyone upped their game. Mondo’s Swedish allegiance allowed him one more shot on the big stage in 2017 at the World Championships, where a 5.50 meter jump, after a promising 5.70 in the qualification round, earned him a ninth place finish. The 2017 season showed the world that Mondo could actually hang in there with pros. It was without a doubt impressive, but it still seemed as if he had a few years to go before he’d begin touching the stars like Kendricks, Lisek, or Lavillenie. Mondo’s forte into the pros seemed to cement the idea that the kid could indeed compete side by side with the best, but it just wasn’t yet his time to do any winning of his own – until 2018 came and proved that notion so very wrong. In retrospect, the world should have seen another explosion coming from him. Up until this point, Mondo had never ceased to put up big numbers right when we weren’t expecting it. The momentum Mondo gained from the 2017 outdoor season carried him right through indoor, but outdoor 2018 is when he really showed the
world what he was made of. Rather than taking time off to prepare for a busy summer, Mondo finished out his high school career at Lafayette High School with a bang. Notoriously battling the Louisiana High School Athletic Association to acknowledge the jumps he took in the Texas Relays elite competition as high school marks, Mondo set his first new high school and World U20 records of the season with a 5.92 meter jump at the March meet. Finishing third to Lavillenie and Barber while simultaneously arguing for his rights as an amateur vaulter really set the stage for the duality that would continue to be Mondo Duplantis, “professional caliber amateur,” throughout the season. To close out his high school career, Mondo outdid himself once again, jumping 5.93 meters (19’5.5”) at the Louisiana State Championships, smashing his previous state record by well over a foot. Rather than take the time to celebrate after hitting the mat, Mondo hustled to the starting line of the 100-meter dash finals, like a true, frantic high school athlete. For most high schoolers, the state championships mark a hard season nearing
its end. For most pros, the same time of year marks the beginning of a long string of summer league meets. For Mondo, May 2018 was merely midway through a half year long outdoor extravaganza. As he did the year prior, Mondo kicked off his bout with the pros with a 5.71 meter jump at the Prefontaine Classic. Unlike the year before however, he had a long line up of professional caliber meets ahead. June marked the beginning of Mondo’s 2018 Diamond League participation, and in front of a home crowd in Stockholm, Sweden, he won the meet. With a 5.86 clearance, Mondo Duplantis had officially taken gold for the first time against professional pole vaulters. When it counted, Mondo overcame the pressure and finessed a win over the likes of Kendricks and Lisek, of Wojciechowski and Barber, none of whom were playing it safe or taking it easy at that point in the season. Renaud Lavillenie is without a doubt Mondo’s biggest pole vault idol, and at that point in his career, the only one he hadn’t bested in competition – until three weeks later at the Meeting de Paris where Mondo’s 5.90 was good for second place behind Kendricks’ world leading 5.96, and ahead of Lavillenie’s
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5.84. Mondo had officially beaten all of his Diamond League competitors at least once, and the season wasn’t even half way over.
Of course some meets went better than others, but Mondo managed to finish his Diamond League regular season in fourth place, safely qualified for the finals with 21 points, after only three official league meets. Along the way, taking advantage of his age, Mondo won the World Junior Championships in Tampere, Finland with his 5.82 meter leap. This meet marked the first time of the season Mondo took attempts at six meters, becoming the only vaulter in the world to do so at that point in the season. These six
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meter attempts, despite the fact that they occurred at a junior meet, made the world start thinking that Mondo might just have the potential to take the world lead not a few years down the line, but a few weeks. Mondo’s final elite meet of the season will be the Diamond League Final, but as of now, his greatest accomplishment of the season, let alone entire career, occurred on August 12th at the European Championships in Berlin. To anyone who follows pole vault, it is not news that Mondo jumped six meters at that meet. It is not news that he then proceeded to jump 6.05. It is not news that he cleared six
heights over 19 feet in a row, missing once at only one bar, or that his 6.05 jump gained him a new Swedish National Record, World Junior Record, World U23 Record, American National Record (despite the controversy around the fact that he jumped the height at an exclusively European meet), and current world leading height. These facts were well reported before the kid even hit the mat, because that jump put everyone on the same page about Mondo. With that jump, the 18-year-old became 2018’s highest pole vaulter in the world. Going into the Diamond League final, Mondo has provided the world the evidence time and time again that has the ability to keep that title.
Location
Date
Type
Height
Austin, USA Baton Rouge, USA Paris, FRA Stockholm, SWE Paris, FRA Lausanne, SUI Tampere, FIN London, UK Berlin, GER
March, 31 2018 May 5, 2018 May 25, 2018 June 10, 2018 June 30, 2018 July 4, 2018 July 14, 2018 July 21, 2018 August 12, 2018
Texas Relays LHSAA Championships Prefontaine Classic Diamond League Diamond League Diamond League World U20 Champs Diamond League European Championships
5.92 5.93 5.71 5.86 (1st place) 5.90 5.70 5.82 5.86 6.05
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Mondo at the Tampere 2018 IAAF World U20 Championships press conference
It can be tough for young prodigies, their coaches, and families to decide on the next steps in their career. If they go pro, the forfeit any amateur or collegiate opportunities in the future, and with how young some of them are, making this call can be difficult, especially of they haven’t experienced much of the professional scene. Mondo has clearly proven that he is more than capable of going pro today, and that he
would be rather successful in his seasons to come. However, though many fans may find it hard to remember after what seemed like the season of a veteran vaulter, Mondo is after all, still just a kid looking forward to his freshman year in college. There’s never been a doubt in his mind that, even with his recent stardom on the world stage, his greatest honor will be representing Louisiana State University, like
his parents before him. This past season, in just Diamond League meets alone, Mondo has had to forfeit over $20,000 of prize money in order to stay amateur and keep that dream alive. The big leagues never made Mondo lose sight of his values, and that’s what makes him so special. To be able to handle, let alone champion, the biggest stage in track and field, while yet not get so caught up in it that he forgets who he is
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and where he came from, is a huge task to ask of anyone, let alone an 18-year-old. To put in perspective just how aware Mondo is of what’s important, on the way down to the mat, falling from his 6.05 clearance, the world celebrating around him, Mondo’s first instinct was to look to his parents. The fact is, Mondo is still young, but the world needs to stop seeing this as a disadvantage. Being on the pro circuit with still such a long career ahead should be looked at as an insane educational advantage. Mondo, just like many kids his age, is a sponge, just waiting to absorb new knowledge. This past year, he’s watched his idols jump up close and personal, bonded with them, talked with them about life on and off the track, and created relationships that no one could put a price on. His love is still fresh, and his eyes are still open to all he can learn from this group of people. With the perspective of pros who have been where he is, parents who love him and want nothing more than to coach him to success, and all of his future training at LSU and beyond, Mondo may have one of the most unique tapestries of mentors in the game, making him that much more unstoppable. He’s old enough to understand the
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extent of his support network in getting him to this point, and young to keep eyeing the future rather than relishing in the past. This is what makes us certain he will be in this game for long, long time; the reason he’s been on all of our radars his entire life yet his relevancy is far from over. His love of the sport is pure. He is not
corrupted by offers of money or sponsorships. He seeks to reveal new frontiers the world once thought impossible. Mondo vaults because pole vault is a part of him, and when a passion is so deeply engrained in someone, untold success is inevitable and the possibilities are endless. Mondo Inverted 2018
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BRUCE CALDWELL: POLE VAULTING a part of his DNA
It all started when Bruce Caldwell was winning the pole vault back in high school meets 49 years ago. Yes! 49 years ago. Bruce Caldwell is a Pole Vaulting Community legacy, often referred to as Mr. Pole Vault. In those early days, as little Bruce Caldwell ran down the dirt runway, holding the pole, and planting it into the narrow wooden box, to ride the pole up over the bar; that he was in fact, branding pole vaulting as part of his DNA, at that early age.
Bruce Caldwell
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It is unimaginable how the sport has played such an essential part of his life, as well as the life of many others! It has been a journey that has involved many, and continues to do so even now. In 1974, he partnered with a pole vault illustrator and Colorado University Vaulter,
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Dave Bussabarger, to write the book “The Elusive Bar 2nd edition,” about the pole vault sport. Steve Smith, a World Pro Vaulter, endorsed that informative book, and this book was used by many top vaulters over the years to build the foundation of their pole vault careers.
Bruce spent two years in college preparing to be a coach and a sports therapist. When he was 23, he became more involved in the study of the Pole Vault event, which led him to consider how the design of vaulting poles could be improved. His desire to help many was not as a competitor, but rather as an inventor of quality track products to support and enhance athlete’s talents. The Sky Pole Company in Costa Mesa CA, offered him the opportunity to make his designs a reality. In 1976, he gave one of his new pole design to his friend, Earl Bell. A month of this gift, Bell broke the World Record with Bruce’s new concept, with a jump of 18’7 ½”, helping him to be part of the 1976 Olympic team. In 1976, in Kansas City Missouri, Bruce founded the
FiberSport Track and Field Company. Sky Pole MFG started making his design a private label under the FiberSport name. Many of Bruce’s athletes such as Billy Olson, Earl Bell, and many High School, found value in this design, something that instigated Foreign athletes to begin jumping on FiberSport. Wladyslaw Kozakieweicz, the polish vaulter, broke the World records with the FiberSport design concept. He also went on to capture the World outdoor record twice in the 1980 Moscow Olympics and also captured the Gold Medal with a jump of 18’11 ½”. Earl Bell went on to jump higher using this design in the 80’s in many World Championships. Ten years after starting the company, Bruce sold the company assets to Sports Supply Group TM in Dallas joining as part of the staff promoting the “PORTaPIT” TM name they had acquired. Due to the value of the credibility he had established with contacts all over the world, Bruce had the opportunity to bid on with Sports Supply Group. They and he won the bid to be the official equipment supplier
of 15 sports at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta — an incredible experience.
In 1998, Bruce started a new company, the ESSX sport. It produced equipment and uniforms for several sports, including soccer and track and field, the two largest participation sports in the U.S. In 2001, Bruce took the company public on the OTCBB trading under the symbol of ESXS. The company sponsored many sports camps and competitive events, providing advice and assistance to athletes and coaches. Earl Bell endorsed the ESSX Vaulting Pole he founded; Dwight Stones endorsed the ESSX landing system, there was even an ESSX soccer shoe made and endorsed by Alberto Caberlotto, the inventor of the LOTTO shoe. Even though the company had raised over $500,000 in a private placement, they had spent much of it to maintain a public image. In 2004, it was time to get out of the public space, as legal rules for Public Companies grew, making it expensive for companies to remain as a public entity. As such, Wallstreet.net and Miss Beverly Hills .com under the direction of Giant Junior
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Bruce & Bonnie 2018
Investment Corp took over the public entity. In 2004, Bruce bought his way out of the public arena and moved ESSX to be a private Company. With the concept of the ESSX’s consistency, many great vaulters such as Olympian Kellie Suttle, Jillian Schwartz, and top vaulters such as Tracy O’Hara, Tye Harvey 19’2”, Jim Davis, and Bubba McLean
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went to the Olympic trials on ESSX poles. Master’s vaulter Bubba Sparks has jumped on every concept and design of a vaulting pole designed by Bruce; such as Sky-pole, FiberSport, and ESSX. He is currently the master’s World Record holder at several ages.
In 2012, he sold the manufacturing part of the company to UST- Mamiya Golf and worked as a distributor
for ESSX poles for over three years, as a way of creating demand for the ESSX pole.
Bruce always states that the Best Pole in the World is the one you can get and the one that fits! Providing vaulting poles to fit athletes is Bruce’s biggest asset. Many jumpers today, such as Sam Kendricks, the 2017 World Champion, (6.00 meters-19’8 1/4”), has worked with Bruce to select
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the Right Pole. Beginners to well-established jumpers all over the World, like Venezuelan Vaulter Robeilys Peinado (Ruby), Polish Vaulter Pawel Wojciechowski, Estonian Vaulter Eric Knool, Norwegian vaulters Eirik Dolve and Sondre Guttormsen, Ukrainian Vaulter Maryna Kylypko, have worked with Bruce. Most recently, he worked with Amber Anand and Varun Bruce Caldwell
Anand, the principal owners of NELCO India, a World supplier of track equipment, to develop a new discus system called NELCO Rim Glide TM. It maximizes athletes’ ability to throw the discus with more stability, consistency and durability. Also, he recently partnered with 2-time Estonian Pole Vault Olympian Valeri Bukreyev to bring Kanstet VSS-1 Sports Surface for Indoor banked Tracks and Roll-Out runways to the USA.
Bruce also works with NELCO and Bernie Miller, Inventor of the Rock-Back Patent, to provide personal pole cases for protection of poles a shoulder discus kit to hold three discuses, and back pack type bag to hold hammers and shots on wheels. Since 1976 to date, Bruce continues the tradition of providing athletes’ products to maximize and enhance their performances on the track, in the throwing ring, on the pole vault runway and traveling with discus and vaulting poles. When asked what the future holds, He stated; “I have had the opportunity to travel the World with my wife, Bonnie and I will be continuing the legacy; the adventure with a new book, new products, because helping others is in my DNA.”
Chandlar Ifft 2018 Junior Olympics
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RIGHT NOW N O T H I N G E L S E VAULTER
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MATTERS TIME TO FLY
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