Word: pennell
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...five months Pole Vaulter John Pennel, 25, has traveled-from São Paulo, Brazil, to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, to Los Angeles, to Boston, to Baltimore-all with the notion of be coming the first man ever to vault 17 ft. indoors. Along the way he competed in 16 meets, won his event in 13 of them, set two new world records (16 ft. 9½-in. and 16 ft. 10 in.). In Boston, he soared cleanly over the bar at 17 ft. i in., only to dislodge it with his arm on the way down. In Los Angeles, he cleared...
...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...
...which makes Pole Vaulter John Pennel the season's one genuinely exciting track performer. So far, Pennel has competed in eleven indoor meets, won in ten, been voted the outstanding athlete in three. Last month, at the Los Angeles Invitational meet, he soared over the bar at 16 ft. 9½ in., to break the world record set in 1963 by Finland's Pentti Nikula. Not bad for a 25-year-old wine salesman who has not prac ticed in more than a year and knows that each time he jumps may be his last...
...fact that Pennel is able to compete at all is amazing. His back has hurt him ever since he was a boy, vaulting over garbage cans with a pipe from a TV antenna. "Sometimes it was so bad that he could not straighten up in the morning," remembers his mother, who tried to help with massages. Doctors at first thought he had just a muscular ailment, so Pennel ignored the pain, went on to set an outdoor record...
Back home in Miami, doctors finally diagnosed a slipped disk, put Pennel into traction, tried to persuade him to undergo a spinal fusion operation. He refused, and last summer he began competing again-shunning practice sessions as a pointless risk. To protect his spine from "jamming," he now lands flat on his back instead of on his feet, uses his elbows to soften the impact. How much longer he can keep on, Pennel does not know. One thing he does know: "I want that outdoor record back, and I'm going...