Men Pole Vault Athletics III World Championship 1991 Tokyo (JPN) - Thursday 29.08 - Gold Medal: Sergey Bubka, Soviet Union 3rd
Final 16:00
Height
530
540
550
555
560
565
570
575
580
585
590
595
1. Sergey Bubka
URS
5.95m
-
-
-
-
-
O
-
-
-
X-
XO
2. Istvan Bagyula
HUN
5.90m
O
XO
-
O
-
O
-
XO
XO
O
XXX
3. Maksim Tarasov
URS
5.85m
-
O
-
-
-
O
-
O
O
XXX
4. Radion Gataullin
URS
5.85m
-
-
-
-
-
XO
-
X-
XO
XX-
X
5. Peter Widen
SWE
5.75m
O
O
-
O
-
XXO
O
XXX
6. Tim Bright
USA
5.75m
-
XXO
-
-
XO
-
XXO
-
XXX
7. Hermann Fehringer
AUT
5.60m
O
-
-
O
-
XXX
8. Thierry Vigneron
FRA
5.60m
XO
-
-
O
-
XXX
9. Bernhard Zintl
GER
5.50m
-O
10.Jean Galfione
FRA
5.40m
-O
11.Doug Wood
CAN
5.40m
-O
12.Galin Nikov
BUL
5.30m
-O
-. Philippe Collet
FRA
NM
Bubka won his third consecutive world title, but like Greg Foster earlier in the same evening, gave his supporters some anxious moments before securing the treble. The Ukrainian needed pain-killing injections 90 minutes before the final, and these began to wear off after he entered successfully at 5.70. While Bubka received another injection, three men equalled his championship record of 5.85 – Gataullin, Tarasov and Bagyula.
The world record holder returned, limping, to try for 5.90. Gataullin was first to try and failed narrowly. Tarasov went under the bar while the ailing Bubka hit the bar on the way up. Bagyula went clear to overtake the Soviet trio. Tarasov failed twice more at 5.90, while Gataullin had one more attempt before saving his last try for 5.95. He failed, so finished fourth. Bubka decided to take both his remaining tries at 5.95. He missed the first of these. Bagyula, with three tries, also failed first time. Had Bubka failed his second and last try, he would have placed seventh. After waiting for the end of the women’s 400m hurdles medal ceremony, he went over 5.95 to win. Bagyula could not respond. and concluded “It’s not possible to beat Sergey at the moment”.