Word: poled
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Mayan cities that dot the Yucatan peninsula to the east. One reason: it supported only a few thousand people, rather than 100,000 or more. The major buildings and plazas were little more than earthen mounds covered with grass, lacking any sort of masonry facade and probably topped with pole-and-thatch houses...
FIELD EVENTS, DECATHLON AND HEPTATHLON More old-timers. In the pole vault, Ukrainian Sergei Bubka, 32, has ranked No. 1 for 11 of the past 13 years, and should be able to beat back a challenge from youngster Okkert Brits of South Africa, 23, and Russia's 1992 Olympic champion Maksim Tarasov, 25. Cuban high jumper Javier Sotomayor, 28, the only man ever to clear 8 ft., is a solid favorite if his knee holds up; British triple jumper Jonathan Edwards, 30, is the first man to hop, skip and jump 60 ft.; and Czech javelin thrower Jan Zelezny...
...inaugural track-and-field meet for Atlanta's Olympic stadium in May, two officials watch a Ukrainian pole vaulter prepare for his first jump. The vaulter has been rooted in hypnotic concentration for almost two minutes when, without warning, he explodes down the runway. His legs blur into the scorching stride of a 100-m sprinter, but his upper body is like no sprinter's on earth. It looks more like a bag of rocks lashed together with steel cable. He hauls all this bulk to the end of the runway, then plants 17 ft. of fiber glass into...
...less. Cynics take note: each of those minor increments triggers a lucrative bonus of as much as $50,000 from meet promoters and equipment sponsors. The parsimonious control with which Bubka seems to measure out these achievements has raised eyebrows among purists, who suspect he may have turned the pole vault into a kind of personal cash machine by slicing the bonus bacon with such exquisite thinness...
...wisecracks. When his Nike representative's cell phone beeps, Bubka snatches it up and informs the caller that the official is too tied up with girls to talk. While perusing socks at Macy's, he seizes a pool cue from a mannequin and declares, "This is my new pole!" Then he giggles over the fact that he has accidentally wandered into the wrong dressing room...