The men's pole vault

Pole vault

Pole vaulting is a track and field event in which a person uses a long, flexible pole as an aid to leap over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the ancient Greeks, as well as the Cretans and Celts...

was one of six jumping events on the athletics at the 1908 Summer Olympics

Athletics at the 1908 Summer Olympics

At the 1908 Summer Olympics held in London, England, 26 athletics events were contested, all for men only.Each nation was allowed to enter up to 12 competitors in most of the events. In the team races , each nation entered one team. The medley relay was run by four athletes, with four alternates...

 programme in London. The competition was held on Friday, July 24, 1908.

15 pole vaulters from seven nations competed. It is the only one of the 111 events featured in 1908 to not have any competitors from the host nation.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in metres) prior to the 1908 Summer Olympics.

World Record	3.90(*)	Walter Dray Walter Dray Walter Remy Dray was an American track and field athlete who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics.Dray attended Yale University, where he was the captain of the track team. He held the world record in pole vault three separate times. In 1904 he was sixth in pole vault competition.He died in...	Danbury Danbury, Connecticut Danbury is a city in northern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It had population at the 2010 census of 80,893. Danbury is the fourth largest city in Fairfield County and is the seventh largest city in Connecticut....  (USA United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... )	June 13, 1908
Olympic Record	3.50	Charles Dvorak Charles Dvorak Charles Edward Dvorak was an American track and field athlete who specialized in the pole vault. He attended the University of Michigan where he competed for the Michigan Wolverines men's track and field team from 1900 to 1904. He participated in the 1900 Summer Olympics where he was a favorite...	St. Louis St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...  (USA United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... )	September 3, 1904
	3.50	Fernand Gonder Fernand Gonder Fernand Gonder was a French athlete who competed mainly in the pole vault.He competed for a France in the 1906 Summer Olympics held in Athens, Greece in the pole vault where he won the gold medal. At the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden, he finished fifteenth....	Athens Athens Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...  (GRE Greece Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe.... )	1906

(*) unofficial

Both Edward Cook and Alfred Carlton Gilbert

Alfred Carlton Gilbert

Alfred Carlton Gilbert was an American inventor, athlete, toy-maker and businessman. Born in Salem, Oregon and died in Boston, Massachusetts, Gilbert is best known as the inventor of the Erector Set.-Early life:...

 set a new Olympic record with 3.71 metres.

Results

All jumpers had three attempts at each height.

Place	Name	Nation	Height
1	Edward Cook		3.71 metres
	Alfred Carlton Gilbert Alfred Carlton Gilbert Alfred Carlton Gilbert was an American inventor, athlete, toy-maker and businessman. Born in Salem, Oregon and died in Boston, Massachusetts, Gilbert is best known as the inventor of the Erector Set.-Early life:...		3.71 metres
3	Edward Archibald		3.58 metres
	Charles Jacobs Charles Jacobs (athlete) Charles Jacobs was an American athlete who competed mainly in the pole vault....		3.58 metres
	Bruno Söderström Bruno Söderström Bruno Söderström was a Swedish athlete who competed mainly in the Javelin throw free style and pole vault....		3.58 metres
6	Georgios Banikas		3.50 metres
	Sam Bellah Sam Bellah Sam Bellah was an American track and field athlete who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics and in the 1912 Summer Olympics.He was born in Metz, Monterey County, California and died in Oregon....		3.50 metres
8	Kálmán Szathmáry		3.35 metres
9	Stefanos Kountouriotis		3.25 metres
10	Robert Pascarel		3.20 metres
	Carl Silfverstrand Carl Silfverstrand Carl Johan Silfverstrand was a Swedish athlete and gymnast who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics and in the 1912 Summer Olympics.In 1908 he finished tenth in the pole vault event and twentieth long jump competition....		3.20 metres
12	Thomas Jackson Thomas Jackson (athlete) Thomas Marshall Jackson was an American track and field athlete who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics.In 1908 he finished twelfth in the pole vault competition.-External links:*...		3.05 metres
	G. Koeger		3.05 metres
14	Coen van Veenhuijsen		2.89 metres
15	Bram Evers		2.82 metres

Sources

• Official Report of the Games of the IV Olympiad (1908).
• De Wael, Herman. Herman's Full Olympians: "Athletics 1908". Accessed 7 April 2006. Available electronically at .