My Pole Vault Record, One Centimetre at a Time

In Uppsala, Sweden’s star pole vaulter has cleared 6.31 metres, his 15th world record. Each of his records has beaten the last by exactly one centimetre, so there’s always another one waiting. That’s smart. I set up a bar of my own.

My Records

Record 1: 1 cm. A pencil on the kitchen floor. I cleared it easily. The cat looked up.

Record 2: 2 cm. Two pencils. Also cleared. The cat went back to sleep.

Record 5: 5 cm. A paperback book. A narrow escape on the second attempt.

Record 9: 9 cm. A loaf of bread. I cleared most of it.

Record 12: 12 cm. A shoebox. I had to take a run-up from the hallway.

Record 15: 15 cm. A dictionary. Fifteen world records, the same number as him. We’re level.

The Pole

Then I tried it with a pole. The idea is that you plant the pole and it lifts you over the bar. The pole and I disagreed about where to go. The pole went left, and I went into the sofa.

So I’m back to stepping over things. It’s the classic style.

He’s at 6.31 metres, and I’m at 15 centimetres. That leaves only 616 centimetres between us. At one centimetre a time, I’ll catch him in 616 records. I’ve bought more dictionaries.