Pole Vault - Preparation for the World Champs - Printable Version

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Pole Vault - Preparation for the World Champs - Kombisaurus - Sep 30, 2007

I was asked to take some photos of a few of our Pole Vaulters during their preparation for the recent IAAF Athletics World Championships.

We are lucky enough to be the home of some fantastic Pole Vault talent here in Perth. Most notably Steve Hooker and Paul Burgess who are ranked #1 and #2 in the world respectively, but also Kym Howe (ranked #8 in the world) and Vicki Parnov who, although "only" ranked #60 in the world, was Australia's youngest ever representative at a World Championships having just turned 16. Vicki also happens to be the daughter of Alex Parnov, who is regarded as the world's best Pole Vault coach and is the main reason why WA has been producing world championship Pole Vaulters over the last number of years (this current crop are not his first world champions since he moved to Perth).

Anyway, leading up to the world championships, Perth was subjected to weeks of continuous rain - to the point where the Pole Vaulters simply couldn't train at their usual location at Perry Lakes Stadium.
Luckily the kind people just up the road at Challenge Stadium allowed them to set up right beside one of their 50m swimming pools (in fact it was the main pool used for the 1998 World Swimming championships and also where I shot the 2006 Commonwealth Water Polo Champs) so the athletes could train indoors until leaving for the world champs.

I was asked to take some photos for the athletes to sign and frame to give to the staff at Challenge to say thanks for letting them use their facilities.


1. From left to right: Steve Hooker, Kym Howe, Vicki Parnov, and Paul Burgess.


2. Warming Up.


3. Kym during her warm-up.


4. Steve jumping with me crouching down at the side of the mat - shot at 10mm!


5. Vicki taking off.


6. Vicki during the same jump, passing over the bar.

The bad news however was that none of the four athletes performed at their best during the World Champs. I'm not sure what happened during the Women's event, but I know that during the Men's event the weather conditions changed dramatically half-way through which ruined the chances of quite a few of the top competitors who had been "passing" on the lower heights, including Steve and perhaps Paul. I guess tactics can sometimes backfire.
Hopefully the experience will spur them to work harder and not make the same mistakes at the Olympics next year.

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Pole Vault - Preparation for the World Champs - Irma - Sep 30, 2007

Excellent pictures Adrian..
All great captures, but I think my favorite here is #2... I don't know why but it is the one that caught more my attention...

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Pole Vault - Preparation for the World Champs - Banded Drake - Sep 30, 2007

Very nice shots . I really like # 4 , the wide perspective is something that you dont see very often . Well done ..


...... Shawn

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Pole Vault - Preparation for the World Champs - wulinka - Sep 30, 2007

they are all really great, my favorite though is no. 2 for the light and all.

Uli

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Pole Vault - Preparation for the World Champs - matthew - Sep 30, 2007

#2 is great for the vantage point and lighting showing off his physique. And they're all really good photos of pole vaulters, something that we don't get to see too often.

But for showing the unique venue, #4 has to be my favourite. That's the one that I can see framed and prominently displayed to showcase the way the stadium stepped up and supported the athletic community. It tells the whole story. To me it's the real winner of the series.

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Pole Vault - Preparation for the World Champs - Zig - Sep 30, 2007

Number 4 particularly oustanding; really breaks the mold for sports shots. Number 5 the best of the rest, working with the background somewhat: I'd guess some horrific expense would be incurred to get the close-ups and/or even larger apertures so as to "emerge" form the background a litle more?

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Pole Vault - Preparation for the World Champs - Wedding Shooter - Sep 30, 2007

The action shots are really wonderful Adrian. 2 & 5 grabbed me, but 4 is the winner for such a unique perspective.

With number 1 it would have been improved by getting all the foot of Paul in the shot.

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Pole Vault - Preparation for the World Champs - NT73 - Oct 1, 2007

#5 and #6 show that technique is the thing and not muscular power.
By that I mean she does not look like a weightlifter.
Nice series

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Pole Vault - Preparation for the World Champs - Kombisaurus - Oct 1, 2007

Thanks for the feedback.

I actually had a bit of a tough time shooting this little event, even though it might look straightforward from the shots. The nature of the sport makes it quite difficult to capture facial expression while the athletes are actually doing something interesting. Either they are facing up/down/away from the camera, or else they have an arm obscuring their face, or they just look like they are dangling there.
Also I was restricted by quite poor lighting - it was very late afternoon and the sun was going down so I was struggling to maintain decent shutter speeds even when shooting at f/2 and 1600iso. And because I needed the brightness of f/2 it restricted my telephoto shots to my 135mm prime, and given the restrictions of the arena (ie walls, windows, and a big pool in the way), things like the chopped off foot in shot #1 were pretty much unavoidable.

Excuses, excuses, excuses I know... What I was expecting to be a very straightforward little photoshoot turned into something quite challenging. But I am very happy with shot #4 which turned out exactly as I planned it to. And it is all very good experience.

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Pole Vault - Preparation for the World Champs - Rabid Penguin - Oct 1, 2007

Really good shots. I'm impressed by the framing you were able to get on moving subjects.

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