Athletics at the 1960 Summer Olympics – Men's pole vault

The men's pole vault field event at the 1960 Olympic Games took place on September 5 and September 7. Twenty-nine athletes from 20 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by Don Bragg of the United States, the nation's 14th consecutive victory in the men's pole vault. Ron Morris took silver, making it three straight Games the American team had finished 1–2. Eeles Landström's bronze was Finland's first medal in the event since 1948.

Men's pole vault at the Games of the XVII Olympiad
Left-right: Ron Morris, Don Bragg, Eeles Landström
Venue	Olympic Stadium
Dates	September 5 (qualifying round) September 7 (final)
Competitors	29 from 20 nations
Winning height	4.70 OR
Medalists
Don Bragg  United States Ron Morris  United States Eeles Landström  Finland

Background

This was the 14th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The returning finalists from the 1956 Games were bronze medalist Georgios Roubanis of Greece, seventh-place finisher Eeles Landström of Finland, eighth-place finisher Manfred Preußger of the United Team of Germany, and fourteenth-place finisher Matti Sutinen of Finland. Ninth-place finisher Vladimir Bulatov of the Soviet Union was entered and expected to contend (he was ranked 5th in the world in 1959), but broke his ankle in warm-ups. Don Bragg of the United States was the favorite after breaking the world record at the U.S. trials.

Bulgaria, Iraq, Nigeria, and Turkey each made their first appearance in the event; Germany competed as the "United Team of Germany" for the first time. The United States made its 14th appearance, the only nation to have competed at every Olympic men's pole vault to that point.

Competition format

The competition used the two-round format introduced in 1912, with results cleared between rounds. Vaulters received three attempts at each height. Ties were broken by the countback rule. At the time, total attempts was used after total misses.

In the qualifying round, the bar was set at 3.80 metres, 4.00 metres, 4.20 metres, 4.30 metres, and 4.40 metres. All vaulters clearing 4.40 metres advanced to the final. If fewer than 12 cleared that height, the top 12 (including ties) advanced.

In the final, the bar was set at 4.00 metres, 4.20 metres, 4.30 metres, 4.50 metres, 4.55 metres, 4.60 metres, and 4.70 metres; the winner could attempt further height to break a record. The winner, Bragg, did attempt to improve his own world record at 4.82m, but failed in his three attempts.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Don Bragg (USA)	4.80	Palo Alto, United States	2 July 1960
Olympic record	Bob Richards (USA)	4.56	Melbourne, Australia	26 November 1956

Don Bragg and Ron Morris beat the Olympic record, clearing 4.60 metres. Bragg was also successful at 4.70 metres, setting the new mark.

Schedule

All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

Date	Time	Round
Monday, 5 September 1960	9:00	Qualifying
Wednesday, 7 September 1960	13:30	Final

Results

Key

• o = Height cleared
• x = Height failed
• – = Height passed
• r  = Retired
• SB = Season's best
• PB = Personal best
• NR = National record
• AR = Area record
• OR = Olympic record
• WR = World record
• WL = World lead
• NM = No mark
• DNS = Did not start
• DQ = Disqualified

Top twelve jumpers and ties and all jumpers reaching 4.40 metres advanced to the finals. All heights are listed in metres.

Qualifying

Rank	Athlete	Nation	3.80	4.00	4.20	4.30	4.40	Height	Notes
1	Khristo Khristov	Bulgaria	—	o	o	o	o	4.40	Q
	Matti Sutinen	Finland	—	o	o	o	o	4.40	Q
3	Don Bragg	United States	—	—	o	xo	o	4.40	Q
4	Eeles Landström	Finland	—	o	o	xo	o	4.40	Q
	Günter Malcher	United Team of Germany	—	o	xo	o	o	4.40	Q
6	Rudolf Tomášek	Czechoslovakia	o	xo	o	o	o	4.40	Q
7	Leon Lukman	Yugoslavia	—	o	xxo	o	o	4.40	Q
8	Rolando Cruz	Puerto Rico	—	o	o	o	xxo	4.40	Q
	Ihor Petrenko	Soviet Union	—	o	o	o	xxo	4.40	Q
10	Jānis Krasovskis	Soviet Union	—	—	o	xo	xxo	4.40	Q
11	Ron Morris	United States	—	—	o	o	xxx	4.30	q
12	Dimitar Khlebarov	Bulgaria	—	o	o	o	xxx	4.30	q
	Andrzej Krzesiński	Poland	—	o	o	o	xxx	4.30	q
14	Peter Laufer	United Team of Germany	—	o	o	—	xxx	4.20
	Manfred Preußger	United Team of Germany	—	o	o	—	xxx	4.20
	Roman Lešek	Yugoslavia	—	o	o	xxx	—	4.20
	Valbjörn Þorláksson	Iceland	—	o	o	xxx	—	4.20
18	Dave Clark	United States	o	o	o	xxx	—	4.20
	Janusz Gronowski	Poland	o	o	o	xxx	—	4.20
	Georgios Roubanis	Greece	o	o	o	xxx	—	4.20
	Victor Sillon	France	o	o	o	xxx	—	4.20
22	Noriaki Yasuda	Japan	—	xxo	o	xxx	—	4.20
23	Bjørn Andersen	Denmark	—	o	xxx	—		4.00
	Gérard Barras	Switzerland	—	o	xxx	—		4.00
	Raymond Van Dijck	Belgium	—	o	xxx	—		4.00
26	Allah Ditta	Pakistan	xo	o	xxx	—		4.00
—	Owen Okundaye	Nigeria	xxx	—				No mark
	Mohamed Abdullah	Iraq	xxx	—				No mark
	Orhan Altan	Turkey	xxx	—				No mark
—	Vladimir Bulatov	Soviet Union	DNS

Final

Rank	Athlete	Nation	4.00	4.20	4.30	4.40	4.50	4.55	4.60	4.70	4.82	Height	Notes
	Don Bragg	United States	—	—	o	xo	o	o	o	o	xxx	4.70	OR
	Ron Morris	United States	—	—	o	o	xo	o	xo	xxx	—	4.60
	Eeles Landström	Finland	—	o	—	xo	xo	o	xxx	—		4.55
4	Rolando Cruz	Puerto Rico	o	o	o	o	o	xo	xxx	—		4.55
5	Günter Malcher	United Team of Germany	—	o	o	o	o	xxx	—			4.50
6	Ihor Petrenko	Soviet Union	—	o	—	xxo	o	xxx	—			4.50
	Matti Sutinen	Finland	—	o	—	xxo	o	xxx	—			4.50
8	Rudolf Tomášek	Czechoslovakia	o	o	o	xxo	o	xxx	—			4.50
9	Leon Lukman	Yugoslavia	o	o	o	o	xxx	—				4.40
10	Khristo Khristov	Bulgaria	—	xo	o	o	xxx	—				4.40
11	Dimitar Khlebarov	Bulgaria	—	o	o	xxx	—					4.30
12	Andrzej Krzesiński	Poland	o	o	o	xxx	—					4.30
13	Jānis Krasovskis	Soviet Union	—	—	xo	xxx	—					4.30