Word: pennel
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...most heartwarming heroics of all were performed at the Sacramento Invitational by Pole Vaulter John Pennel. With both legs bandaged to protect painful shin splints, Pennel cleared the bar on his second attempt at 17 ft. 10¼ - a new world mark by Win. It was the ninth time that Pennel has broken the world record in a career plagued by injuries and hard luck. He went into the 1964 Olympics with a wrenched back and finished eleventh. During the finals in Mexico, he was twice thrown off balance, pole in hand, by a mad flourish of trumpets heralding...
Such contortions, of course, might not be necessary if Bob Seagren could remember to flick the pole back with his thumb at the moment of release-as does Competitor John Fennel. "But that's instinctive with me," admits Pennel. "I just do it automatically. Bob hasn't been vaulting as long as I have." The fiber-glass pole apparently is not a factor in Seagren's troubles, but one problem may be the stickum with which Bob, like most vaulters, coats his hands to help him grip the pole better on his approach. Still, Seagren insists that...
...weeks ago, at the most important meet of the indoor season-the National A.A.U. championship at Albuquerque-the 17-ft. barrier was finally broken. But not by Pennel. By his 19-year-old roommate, pal and protégé, Bob Seagren...
...Glendale College in California who plans to enter U.S.C. next fall, Seagren has been vaulting ever since the seventh grade back in Pomona. His best jump until this year was 16 ft. 4 in., and he almost quit jumping last December when he pulled a hamstring in Saskatoon. Pennel made the difference. The two vaulters met at a track meet in San Diego last summer, hit it off well from the start. They traveled to Brazil together last fall, and in January moved into a four-room apartment in Glendale furnished mainly with prizes won by Pennel: two TV sets...
...Albuquerque last week Seagren tried once at 17 ft. ¼ in. and hit the bar on the way up. Pennel's turn came next. "John just barely missed when his hip hit," said Seagren later. "And then on my second try, everything just went perfectly, and I did it." Returning to the bench, he sat there, fists clenched, urging: "Come on, John. Come on. Come on." Twice more Pennel leaped; twice more he failed. "John just tried too hard," sighed Seagren, who acted more embarrassed than elated...