World Athletics: Shawnacy Barber Wins Gold in Men’s Pole Vault

Canada’s Shawnacy Barber prolonged Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie’s world championship jinx by snatching men’s pole vault gold in Beijing today.

This week’s IAAF World Championships has been full of surprises so far and the theme continued in the pole vault when one of the biggest names in athletics was beaten to gold by a little-known 21-year-old from Canada.

The 2015 Bowerman Trophy finalist cleared 5.90m (19-4.25) on his first try, while defending champion Raphael Holzdeppe of Germany needed three attempts.

University of Akron sophomore Shawn Barber is a world champion.

Barber and Holzdeppe were the only two men left at 6.00 meters.

Barber had been clean to that point, topping the first four heights without a miss.

Olympic champion and world record-holder Lavillenie could only clear 5.80 and shared bronze with Polish pair Piotr Lisek and Pawel Wojciechowski as his challenge fell flat again.

Barber, who went to high school in Kingwood, Texas, has dual U.S. and Canadian citizenship.

Shawn and his older brother, Braden, got a taste for the sport while hanging around while their father was coaching at New Mexico State University and later, using customized cut-down poles, refined their techniques on the family farm, where an old aircraft hangar became a homemade practice facility.

Barber came into the event ranked third in the world this year.

George Barber was in the crowd at the Bird’s Nest, watching his son extend Lavillenie’s gold-medal drought to four world championships. He was the top-American finisher in the semifinals of the 800 meters in 1:46.28, but did not advance to the final.

Murphy ran the third-fastest time in his career, but finished seventh in the first of three heats.

“I was in good shape and I don’t really know what went wrong”, he said. “I’ve made all the mistakes pole vaulting, he benefits from that. I can’t be disappointed”.