BLACKSBURG – Rising sophomore Deakin Volz of the Virginia Tech men’s track and field team jumped a personal-best height of 5.65 meters (18 feet, 6.5 inches) to capture a Gold medal in the pole vault event at the 2016 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World U20 Championships on Saturday, at Zawisza Stadium located in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
A native of Bloomington, Indiana, Volz recorded three personal-best marks to set a new school record, surpassing Torben Laidig’s mark of 5.60 meters (18 feet, 4.5 inches) at the Texas Relays on April 1. Australia’s Kurtis Marschall, a 2016 Rio Olympics participant, was highly favored to win today’s pole vault competition, but Volz overcame the odds and finished strong to earn the program’s first-ever world junior Gold medal.