Shawnacy Barber wins men’s pole vault bronze at 2018 Diamond League Finals

Shawnacy Barber (Erik van Leeuwen, Wikimedia Commons)

Shawnacy Barber of Toronto, Ontario won the bronze medal in the men’s pole vault at the 2018 International Association of Athletics Federations Diamond League Final in Brussels, Belgium on Friday. It was Barber’s most impressive result during the 2018 track and field season.

Barber had a third place jump of 5.83 metres. Timur Morgunov, an authorised neutral athlete, won the gold medal with a jump of 5.93 metres, Sam Kendricks of the United States won the silver medal with a jump of 5.88 metres.

Barber reached the podium by 0.05 metres. Piotr Lisek of Poland finished in fourth place with a jump of 5.78 metres.

It has been a relatively strong summer for Barber, who won the 2015 world championship in Beijing. He won the men’s pole vault at the  Canadian Track and Field Championship in Ottawa on July 7, and then had three silver medal performances at three international track and field competitions in August. They were the 2018 North American, Central American and Caribbean Championship in Toronto, the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial Track and Field meet in Chorzow, Poland and at the Zurich Invitational in Switzerland.

Barber recorded Canada’s only medal in the Diamond League Finals, which began Thursday in Zurich and ended Friday in Brussels. It should be noted that five of Canada’s six gold medalists from the 2018 North American, Central American and Caribbean Championship in Toronto, did not qualify for the Diamond League Finals. The only one who did was Aaron Brown of Toronto, Ontario, who finished fourth in the men’s 200 metres Thursday in Zurich. At the 2018 North American, Central American and Caribbean Championship in Toronto, Brown won gold earlier this month with Bismark Boateng of Toronto, Ontario, Jerome Blake of Kelowna, British Columbia and Mobolade Ajomale of Richmond Hill, Ontario. Canada’s other two gold medalists from the continental track meet in Toronto earlier this month were Brandon McBride of Windsor, Ontario (men’s 800 metres) and Evan Dunfee of Richmond, British Columbia (men’s 20 kilometre walk).

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