The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

BRENT Vanderpool knew sooner or later his son Brenden would surpass his accomplishments in the men’s pole vault.

The week before he came home to defend his title at the Oaktree Medical Center’s 50th CARIFTA Games, 17-year-old Brenden soared 16-feet, 3-inches at Mount Pisgah Christian School in Mount Pisgah, Georgia to eclipse his 57-year-old father’s Bahamas national record of 16-0 ½-inches that he established in 1987 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

At the actual games over the weekend at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium, the younger Vanderpool repeated as champion, soaring 16-7 ¼ (5.06m) to erase the under-20 boys record of 16-6 3/4 (5.05m) that was set by Baptiste Thiery of Martinique on April 1, 2018 the last time CARIFTA was held in the Bahamas.

Tyler Cash, also representing the Bahamas, picked up the bronze with his height of 14-7 ¼ (4.45m) as he trailed silver medallist Jeremiah Felix of St Lucia, who cleared 15-1 (4.60m).

For Brenden, it was a relief when he pulled off the first repeat performance for the Bahamas in the pole vault competition.

“I had to show up. It was the 50th games being held in my hometown in Nassau, so it was just relieving to be able to win it again and defend my title,” said the younger Vanderpool, who didn’t get to celebrate with the rest of his team-mates as he had to head out early on Sunday to return to school.

Last year, Brenden Vanderpool made his debut for the Bahamas in Kingston, Jamaica, where he captured his first title. He admitted that he was a little nervous then because he really didn’t know what to expect. But this time around, he said he was more confident and relaxed.

There wasn’t that much pressure.

“I felt like I got along much better with the other athletes and the coaches because they knew me from last year,” he pointed out.

“So I was able to keep calm, cool and collected and I was much more confident in my training and my ability to compete.”

After setting the Bahamian record the week before he came to town, Brenden Vanderpool said he had no idea that he would be going after the CARIFTA record here. He acknowledged that he didn’t know the exact height of the record. All he wanted to do was win.

“As soon as I was declared the winner, I was told what the record was, so we decided to just go for it,” he said. “In my head, I wasn’t too nervous about it. But while the bar was going up, I was just sitting there with a blank stare.

“I just was concentrating on the bar. It was the most serious undertaking I have ever gone through. But it was definitely, I had to sit down and get myself mentally prepared for it. Even my team-mate Tyler came over to me and tried to hype me up. I was just focused on that bar.”

As he ascended the bar, Brenden Vanderpool cleared it, but his chest clipped it on his decent. The only thought that came through his mind was that he had knocked the bar down. But to his surprise, it stayed up and it was declared a legal clearance and a new CARIFTA record.

“I was ecstatic,” said Brenden Vanderpool as he started jumping around to the rhythmic sound of the junkanoo music playing.

The elder Brent Vanderpool, who is his son’s actual coach, and some of their family members were in the stands cheering on the younger Brenden Vanderpool.

“When I first timed him running a 40 metres, I knew he had the speed to do it. He may not have the belief, but two weeks before coming to the games, he was jumping around 17-feet in practice, so he was well prepared,” Brent Vanderpool said.

“He was using the smaller pools to see if he could clear it. I wanted him to see that it was doable. Then when we put the big pool in his hands, he just went for it.”

From the time he was competing in the sport about 30 years ago when hardly anybody took notice of the field events, Brent Vanderpool said it was so gratifying to see so many people in the stands late Sunday night to watch the competition of the event.

“This was 10 times better. I had a cousin with me who said he never watched the pole vault, but he couldn’t miss it,” Brent Vanderpool said.

“He said he didn’t know that much about the event, but he just got goose bumps watching it.”

For Brenden Vanderpool, it was a welcome reception to validate his rise to the top of the event for the second consecutive year.

“Since I was the defending champion and with it being at home, I knew I just had to win it,” he stated. “At the same time, I knew regardless of what I did, the Bahamian people would be so proud. It was a nice feeling to have my family out there in the crowd.

“I wasn’t nervous or anything. It was more of a supporting thing. It was like you just go out there and do your best and we will be there to support you. The only reason I could tell, it was when we were going through the warm-up session, I could hear the crowd getting so excited, so I knew it was going to be something special for them to watch.”

And now that he has surpassed his father, Brent, in achievement in the event, Brenden said he’s still trying to wrap his head around his accomplishment.

“When I first started the pole vault, I wasn’t only doing it, because I knew that he was good at it and he was teaching me some of the things he did,” Brenden said of his father Brent.

“Then as things started progressing and I got to my first CARIFTA, it really blossomed.

“It’s just a nice feeling to have been able to surpass all of his achievements, but I am truly blessed to be able to achieve what I have been able to do in such a short time.”

In three years, Brent Vanderpool said his son Brenden did what it would take the average pole vaulter to do over a greater span of time.

“Normally pole vaulters average clearing about six inches higher per year, but he’s been in this for less than three years and the first time he jumped, it was about 10 feet,” Brent Vanderpool reflected. “He’s gone at least six feet in three years. That’s unheard of for a pole vaulter.

“It’s all due to what I know he can do, but at the same time, I don’t let him know everything. He didn’t really know what the CARIFTA record was until he came here. He thought it was higher. So we just decided to let him go a little higher so that he could break it. I didn’t want to put any pressure on him. I just wanted him to be height conscious.”

Having gotten his taste of competing for the Bahamas on the international scene, Brenden Vanderpool wants some more action and is preparing to come back to represent the country at the Junior Pan American Games.

But, in the meantime, he still has some unfinished business to take care of at school. He has four more meets before he competes in the state championship in Georgia and eventually in the Night of Champions where he is matched against the best pole vaulters.

Brenden Vanderpool is also getting ready to complete his tenure at White Field Academy in Mableton, Georgia, which is about five miles away from Smyrna, Georgia. After he graduates in May, he will be moving onto Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, where the head coach is a pole vaulter who has ensured him that he will be able to improve on his performances.