Pole vault career

Sergey Bubka started competing on the international athletics scene in 1981 when he participated in the European Junior Championship finishing seventh. But the 1983 World Championship held in Helsinki was his actual entry point to the world athletics, where a relatively unknown Bubka snatched the gold, clearing 5.70 meters (18 feet 8 inches). The years that followed witnessed the unparalleled dominance of Bubka, with him setting new records and standards in pole vaulting.

He set his first world record of 5.85m on 26 May 1984 which he improved to 5.88m a week later, and then to 5.90m a month later. He cleared 6.00 meters (19 feet 8 inches) for the first time on 13 July 1985 in Paris.^[7] Bubka improved his own record over the next 10 years until he reached his career best and the then world record of 6.14 m (20 feet 13⁄4 inches) in 1994. He vaulted on UCS Spirit poles throughout his later career.^[17][18]

He became the first athlete ever to jump over 6.10 meters, in San Sebastián, Spain in 1991. Bubka increased the world record by 21 centimeters (8 inches) in the period from 1984 to 1994. He cleared 6.00 meters or better on 45 occasions.^[19]

Bubka officially retired from pole vault in 2001 during a ceremony at his Pole Vault Stars meeting in Donetsk.^[20]

Technique

Bubka gripped the pole higher than most vaulters to get extra leverage, though Bubka himself played down the effect of grip alone.^[23]

His development of the Petrov/Bubka technical model is also considered a key to his success. ^[24] The Petrov/Bubka model allows the vaulter to continuously put energy into the pole while rising towards the bar.^{[citation needed]} Most conventional models focus on creating maximum bend in the pole before leaving the ground, by planting the pole heavily in the pole vault box. The Petrov/Bubka model follows the technique used by Kjell Isaksson,^{[25][26][27][28]} which concentrates on driving the pole up, rather than bending it while planting it on the landing pad, combined with high running speed. While the traditional models depended on the recoil by bending the pole, the Petrov/Bubka model may exploit the recoil of the pole and exert more energy on the pole during the swinging action.^{[citation needed]}