Wow! Our first, and hopefully annual, Vault The Park was a tremendous success! Although we dealt with a torrential downpour that led to a delay in the schedule, it did not dampen the mood of the crowd, the athletes or the volunteers.
Photo Credit: Howard Adams - Alysha Newman mid-flight at inaugural Vault The Park
Set up for the event started on Wednesday night with a handful of volunteers loading the truck with everything we needed for the event. We met on Central Ave at 7:30am on Thursday to begin setting up the venue, including a 40m raised runway, all while dodging morning rush hour traffic until we got the road closed.
We were fortunate to have Alysha Newman competing and she sure delivered! The crowd witnessed Canadian history as she broke her own Canadian record to a soaring 4.61m! Here's the video.
Photo Credit: Howard Adams - Newman sets a new Canadian Record of 4.61m
We couldn't have put on this event without the hard work and commitment of a number of people, as well as a few local companies. Dave Collins spearheaded the idea and helped us get this event put together in under 2 weeks, first guy to show up and last guy to leave when it came to setting up the venue, too! Thank you to Moffat and Powell for delivering 40 skids to help us raise the pole vault pits, Winmar for donating an 18-wheeler and an amazing driver, Manny! Thank you to The PA Shop for donating the sound system we needed and to Sport Tourism London and the City of London for working so fast on getting permits arranged for us to shut down Central Ave. To Jeff Fisher, thank you for reaching out to media. Thank you London Free Press, AM980, Blackburn Media and 1290CJBK for picking up our event, I know there were people at the park due to the few minutes of airtime or few lines of print media you gave us. Thank you to Jenn Jaquith and her daughter Lynton for everything you did, including the cool logo! Thanks to NorWest soccer for giving us a few extra tents. We sure needed them! And finally, thank you to Mayor Matt Brown for showing up and saying a few words to our Olympians in attendance who are off to Rio next week.
Photo credit: Howard Adams - From left to right, Damian Warner, Mayor Matt Brown and Lanni Marchant
I could go on and on about the people that made this event happen, but please know that your efforts and support do not go unrecognized.
Thanks again. We're already planning on bigger and better for next year!