Cornelius Warmerdam

Warmerdam took a bamboo pole about as far as it could go. In 1940 he became the first man over 15 feet, and his 4.77m in 1942 stood as the world record for 15 years, an astonishing span in an equipment-driven event. Wartime cancellations meant he never had the chance to compete at an Olympics. He is the benchmark for what pure technique, speed and strength could do before stiffer and then bending poles arrived.