Master's World Championships

[Lt Don]

A few thoughts from the games. First - Thanks to all the guys who helped me through my first World Championships. The pole vaulters are without a doubt the greatest group of guys worldwide.

I was unable to fly with my poles and in the attempt, I missed the shipping deadline for Gill. Individual shipping was too expensive and I had to go without them. I borrowed a pole from Gill and made the best of it. I could have used a practice session in Riccione, but could not get a e-mail or phone response from our team manager in time and I missed it. I am sure he was busy but he seemed preoccupied with relays and had no time for individual athletes. Trevor Richards (m40 gold) showed me where the poles were and how to reserve them, otherwise I would have been SOL. (Thanks a ton!) There was no information being given at all. At a mandatory team meeting I asked the team manager how I could get in touch with him and was told "My cell battery died...so basically - you can't." My wife stated that after spending $10,000 for the trip she would buy another battery for him. We were on our own, and she sensed my frustration.

Early conditions for the M50 were great. 72 degrees, sunny and a 6-8 mph tail wind. I found one pole near the beginning of my series and had some good early jumps, good height on 3.70m/gripping 12'5". As the meet wore on, the sun set directly in our face and everyone became tentative on their approach. The box was a dark shadow and zero perception. My last jump @ 4.0m was a real ugly crash...took off about a foot out without knowing it and the result wasn't funny for a few days. The last two jumpers were able to wait it out and had great conditions once the sun went down. Wolfgang Ritte looked pretty good, but I got back to hear of Gary Hunter's 16' WR, and knew he should have been there.

I finished 6th tied with Mike Hogan. Thanks Mike for your help and reassurance. Thanks to my training partner Bubba Sparks for his coaching and support this year. I jumped in 14 major meets this year without injury and ended with an unforgetable trip to Italy. (My wife's reward for putting up with my obsession.) Overall, a great year.

As I said...Vaulters are the greatest!.

Don Curry

[souleman]

Congrats on a great year Don! You're a great addition to this Geezer vaulting community. Later..........Mike

[master]

Hey Don,

Welcome back and sorry your experience didn't go a little smoother. Sounds like you did well under the circumstances. I hope you and your wife had a good time with the rest of the trip.

Dealing with poles is just a pain. There has got to be a solution, but I haven't thought of it yet.

- master

[Bubba PV]

Congrats on a great year Don. I think you may need to bring up your talk with Wolfie and his alleged ignorance of who Gary Hunter is. I think he turns 55 on 1/11/08 so he and Gary would be in the same group at Reno. As good of a vaulter as he is, his best this year is Gary's opening height. A little respect please! LOL!! BTW - my best this year is their pop up grip. Bubba

[poledog]

Great seeing you in Italy Don! I just wish there were more US vaulters there - despite pole transport logistics, language barriers, and various last minute stresses (like finding my pole case empty 2 days before the meet) I had a blast and if I have the money and health to do Finland in 2009 I'll do it in a heartbeat! Trevor

[DBH027]

Don, congrats on the results in Italy.

Sorry to hear about your problems with the poles, believe me I can empathize after my ordeal in Linz....I am considering going to France for the '08 indoor championships, but unless there is a solution to this pole transport issue, I don't want to risk a repeat of the Linz debacle!

[Lt Don]

I would like to see some USATF team effort to collect poles and send them together (Like Gill did this year) with some reasonable time frame. Flying with poles is possible but trains are not. I don't know if all of the sites have very close airports, but the tide will turn in 2011...many of the guys from Europe will find out what we have been going through. Also, when all the US guys come, there will definitely be less hardware leaving the states.

What Bubba was mentioning above about Wolfgang is part of a conversation I had with him in the Call Room. I heard he was being flown to Reno to break the world M55 record and told him that I would love to see him and Gary Hunter at the same meet. Wolfgang said "Who? Gary?" It did not sound like he was kidding, nor did he sound as though he had trouble with my English...but who knows. I must say he looked good during the meet, and was very nice. In fact almost everyone was...few exceptions.

Congrats to Gary! That's what I want to be when I grow up. No one gets to where he is without many hours on the runway. I'd like to see his training logs.

Don

[2-15-46]

Great job Don!!!!!!!!!

[lonestar]

I'd like to jump in on Don's behalf here as my company spent 3 months trying to get a pole shipment worked out for him. My assistant spent countless hours on the phone with BAX getting transferred from person to person, branch to branch, department to department for literally 3 months trying to set this up. Nobody could give us a straight answer, offer a solution, or even conceive of the possibility of shipping poles round-trip because of customs issues, power-of-attorney, 3rd party carriers -both domestic and foreign, language barriers, unavailable rate quotes, etc... It was a very frustrating experience for Don and for us, and I swear that if I'm going to compete abroad, my poles will fly with me with a written guarantee from the airlines that they will take them.

In 2004, Francisco Leon and I flew Continental to Spain and brought his poles to the Iberian Championships without any problems. In 2006, we tried to do the same with Continental to Argentina for the South American Indoor Championships, and were denied at the Houston Airport, DESPITE having a printed copy of the airline's policies off their website that says they WILL take poles for a fee. The ticket counter manager simply said that despite the printed policy, they were simply too long for the length restrictions placed on the cargo hold by Continental. Very frustrating for Francisco and I having to borrow a ragtag series of crappy poles that didn't fit us to jump on in a major televised meet in front of Vitali Petrov. I know Don felt the same way in Italy.

I agree with Don that USATF should take a role in the logistics of transporting their athletes' poles to International Competitions, particularly Championships.

[Bubba PV]

Until I started shipping with Lonestar (the best way domestically) I took poles with me like everyone else. I called in advance and told them that I understand that oversize baggage is first come first served so I need to make sure that it’s noted in my itinerary, quoting them their policy. Once it’s in the itinerary you have a better shot. IF I had a problem I used a trick I learned from the late and great, Dan Borrey, “You have to take my poles. You are one of the meet sponsors and that’s why I’m flying your airlinesâ€Â

[DBH027]

I know this response is a bit late, but am reading it due to the fact I was just on the '08 WMA Indoor Championship site....

The issue I had in '06 actually involved the TSA...Lufthansa was willing to take my poles, I check something like 6 times and had it in writing, I checked in, paid the fee, and they took my poles. I was at the gate when they paged me back to the ticket counter. They then told me the TSA refused to screen them, so "good luck" or more like your "S**t out of luck." They did offer to deliver them via Lufthansa air freight, but I had an hour before the flight and no way to get the poles 5 miles to where they needed to be. I called a buddy who came and picked them up at the airport, and boarded my flight. We opted not to freight them because is was like 10% they would get there in-time, plus I got bailed out by the UK team who let me borrow a couple of poles that worked.

Does anyone know if Gill is offering the service for the '08 indoor meet?

Best bet might be to stash poles across the globe, or create some way to make poles available at these meets. You know somewhere in Europe someone is using a pole that is the right length and flex for what you need.

Also, I just realized my avatar is from that meet...only decent picture I have of me vaulting....