Walker leads U.S. showing at Worlds
Last year, he was ranked No. 1 in the world. Now Brad Walker has a world championship to back it up.
The former University High School pole vaulter overcame a head injury and an early miss Sunday to win the gold medal at the IAAF World Indoor Track and Field Championships in Moscow.
“This is amazing,” said the 24-year-old University of Washington graduate, who made a last-attempt clearance at 19 feet, 1/4 inch to beat Aljahi Jeng of Sweden and win the $40,000 first prize.
It’s Walker’s first gold medal in international competition, coming on the heels of a silver medal performance at last year’s IAAF outdoor championships. He’s a three-time USA outdoor champion indoors and out and was ranked No. 1 in the vault in 2005 by Track and Field News.
But his run at a gold in Moscow got off to a rocky start.
Walker fell off the pit during a practice vault on Saturday, striking his head on the turf at the Olimpiyskiy Sport Palace Complex. He went ahead and competed in the qualifying round before undergoing a CT scan that revealed no damage.
“I understated how fast I was moving on the runway during warm-ups, and I rotated into the pit and went off to the side,” Walker said. “My feet and legs hit the pit and threw my back and head onto the track, and I hit my head. The lights went out for a while, and I got back up and qualified. I had a little bit of whiplash.
“I was sore today and feeling the effects of what happened. I was just a little bit cautious hitting the pit in warm-ups.”
Walker, who has a 19-6 1/2 lifetime best, opened with an uncharacteristic miss at 18-4 1/2, which left him trailing Jeng and Germany’s Tim Lobinger. But Walker and Jeng both sailed over 18-8 1/4 on their first attempts, while Lobinger missed twice and then a third time at 18-10 1/4. Walker then squeezed over 19-1/4 on his final jump and watched as Jeng missed his last try.
“I didn’t want another silver like Helsinki,” Walker said. “Thankfully, on my third attempt, everything came together and I won the gold medal.”
Walker, Walter Davis and the men’s 1,600 relay team picked up gold for the U.S., but it wasn’t enough to overtake Russia in the medals race. Russia won five golds Sunday, bringing their tournament total to eight and 18 medals overall to top the standings for the second straight time.
The Americans finished second with seven gold and 13 overall, a huge improvement over Budapest two years ago, when they finished with 10 overall medals, four of which were gold.
The best U.S. performance came from Davis, who won the triple jump with a huge opening jump. It seemed to flirt with the world record of 58 feet, 6 inches before, amazingly, he was only given 56-9 1/4 . He had to protest furiously to change it to its rightful 58-2, making him the sixth best indoor performer of all time.