Women's pole vault world record progression explained

The first world record in the women's pole vault was recognised by the International Association of Athletics Federations in 1994. The inaugural record, 4.05 metres by Sun Caiyun of China set in 1992, was the world's best mark as of December 31, 1994.

As of June 21, 2009, the IAAF has ratified 54 world records in the event.

Pre-IAAF Record Progression

The first mark shows the measurement system in use at the time of the jump, the second mark shows the conversion. Marks set in the USA during this era were always measured in imperial measurements. Most of the world and IAAF recognize marks in metric measurements.

Mark	Athlete	Nation	Venue	Date
^[1]			Painesville	14 May 1910
				15 May 1911
^[2]
			Rock Hill	3 April 1915
			Tallahassee	13 April 1915
=
=			Lincoln	13 May 1915
=			New Haven	6 June 1915
				3 June 1919
			Nürnberg	17 July 1921
=			Moskva	7 September 1924
				26 August 1935
			Philadelphia	6 July 1952
=			Wairoa	8 Jan 1969
i			Louisville	10 February 1978
i				9 February 1979
i
i
i
				June 1983
			Chicago	11 June 1983
			Cleveland	18 June 1983
				18 June 1983
			Fort Wayne	23 July 1983
			Guangzhou	20 April 1988
				4 May 1988
			Nanjing	10 June 1988
			Fuzhou	22 April 1989
			Guangzhou	9 September 1989
				24 March 1990
				24 March 1991
=
			Beijing	5 June 1991
			Guangzhou	10 August 1991

IAAF Record Progression

Mark	Athlete	Nation	Venue	Date	^[3]
^[4]			Nanjing, China	21 May 1992	1
				18 May 1995	2
					1
	Daniela Bártová			21 May 1995	1
				18 June 1995	2
			Wesel, Germany	24 June 1995	3
				2 July 1995	4
			Ostrava, Czech Republic	6 July 1995	5
			Feldkirch, Austria	14 July 1995	6
				15 July 1995	7
			Zittau, Germany	5 August 1995	1
	Daniela Bártová		Köln, Germany	18 August 1995	8
			Linz, Austria	22 August 1995	9
			Salgótarján, Hungary	11 September 1995	10
				30 November 1995	1
			Perth, Australia	17 December 1995	2
				28 January 1996	3
					4
			Reims, France	29 June 1996	5
			Sapporo, Japan	14 July 1996	6
			Melbourne, Australia	8 February 1997	7
				20 February 1997	8
			Auckland, New Zealand	21 February 1998	9
			Melbourne, Australia	14 March 1998	10
				21 March 1998	11
			Sydney, Australia	20 February 1999	12
			Sevilla, Spain	21 August 1999	1
i ^[5]			Pocatello, U.S.	19 Feb 2000	2
i			Atlanta, U.S.	3 Mar 2000	3
			Sacramento, U.S.	23 July 2000	4
i			New York City, U.S.	2 Feb 2001	5
i	Svetlana Feofanova		Dortmund, Germany	11 February 2001	1
i			Pocatello, U.S.	17 Feb 2001	6
i					7
				27 April 2001	8
			Stanford, U.S.	9 June 2001	9
					10
	Yelena Isinbayeva		Gateshead, England	13 July 2003	1
i			Donets'k, Ukraine	15 February 2004	2
i	Svetlana Feofanova^[6]		Athens, Greece	22 February 2004	2
i	Yelena Isinbayeva		Budapest, Hungary	6 March 2004	3
			Gateshead, England	27 June 2004	4
	Svetlana Feofanova		Heraklion, Greece	4 July 2004	3
	Yelena Isinbayeva		Birmingham, England	25 July 2004	5
			London, England	30 July 2004	6
				24 August 2004	7
			Brussels, Belgium	3 September 2004	8
			Lausanne, Switzerland	5 July 2005	9
			Madrid, Spain	16 July 2005	10
			London, England	22 July 2005	11
					12
			Helsinki, Finland	9 August 2005	13
			Rome, Italy	11 July 2008	14
			Fontvieille, Monaco	29 July 2008	15
			Beijing, China	18 August 2008	16
^[7]			Zürich, Switzerland	28 August 2009	17

See also

• Men's pole vault world record progression

Notes and References

1. http://iaaf-ebooks.s3.amazonaws.com/2015/Progression-of-IAAF-World-Records-2015/projet/IAAF-WRPB-2015.pdf P314
2. Web site: Women's PV World Record Progression - PoleVaultPower.com.
3. The numbered occurrence of the athlete breaking the world record, in other words "#7" would indicate the 7th time the athlete broke the world record.
4. Web site: 12th IAAF World Championships In Athletics: IAAF Statistics Handbook. Berlin 2009. . IAAF Media & Public Relations Department . Monte Carlo . Pages 546, 645 . 2009 . July 30, 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110629134819/http://www.iaaf.org/mm/document/competitions/competition/05/15/63/20090706014834_httppostedfile_p345-688_11303.pdf . June 29, 2011 .
5. "From 2000, IAAF Rule 260.18s (formerly 260.6.a) was amended to say world records (as opposed to indoor world records) can be set in a facility 'with or without a roof.' So far, only one event - the women's pole vault - has been affected by this change, which was not applied retrospectively. Therefore world records set in 2000 and 2001 by Stacy Dragila and Svetlana Feofanova can be regarded as 'absolute' and appear on these [record progression] lists." http://www.iaaf.org/mm/document/competitions/competition/05/15/63/20090706014834_httppostedfile_p345-688_11303.pdf (p.546) This rule also applies to Isinbayeva's and Feofanova's 2004 marks.
6. The IAAF lists Yelena Isinbayeva as having set this mark on 20 February 2004 on their 2009-published progression lists. However, multiple sources elsewhere, including the IAAF's own list of highest women's indoor vaults of the year 2004,http://www.iaaf.org/statistics/toplists/inout=i/age=n/season=2004/sex=W/all=n/legal=A/disc=PV/detail.html state that Svetlana Feofanova in fact set this record.
7. Web site: World Records Ratified . November 9, 2009 .