SEOUL - Both of the Americans are bringing home Olympic medals for stellar performances in the insulator-collecting contest finals. Furthermore, both medals will be returning to the Houston, Texas area.

Elton Gish of Port Neches won the gold, and N.R. "Woody" Woodward brought home the bronze. This is the first really big celebration for any of our climbers, since the pole-climbing competition was only a spectator sport in the prior three Olympiads. 

Several rule changes instituted since the 1984 games have made the course tougher, and the elapsed times were somewhat greater, as expected. 

The starting line was moved from the 20 meter point at the centerline of the frontage road back to the nearest track rail on the other side -- an increase in the distance of 14 meters. 

Participants must also now put on their climbers at the starting point after the starting gun instead of first running to the pole base and donning them there. 

Both Elton and Woody trained hard all summer after making the team in the March trials by barely beating out Larry Veneziano and Ray Klingensmith. Woody even made a training trip to England for practice on the cemented-spindle pins. 

Veneziano might have made the team in March, but in both runs he lost valuable time by gathering in all the insulators on the crossarm instead of only the required six, and this also resulted in some penalty time for insulator damage.

Klingensmith was by far the speediest in the run and climb. Although risky of disqualification, he hurdled all the obstacle bushes around the pole instead of climbing through them. His first gaff mark on the pole measured nearly 2 meters up the pole!! As with Larry, an old habit not condoned by the coach was Ray's undoing. He lost valuable time removing each insulator and inspecting it in the search for a threadless one! 

Both these losers in the trials were also handicapped by tougher rules on the compulsory insulators in the six to be grabbed from the ten on the crossarm. Instead of only one, there are now two cemented-spindle insulators. Also the tie-wired changeouts in the compulsories have been increased from one to two. The other two of the six insulators are at the climber's option.

As expected, the British did well in the Olympics, with Keith Neal (Channel Isles) winning the silver medal. His speedy time was greatly enhanced by his use of a bicycle from the starting line to the pole base. 

Bryzklenski of "Pole-land" was fastest with two cemented-spindle insulators, but he had disastrous time penalties (2 seconds for each handling chip or fracture), since he was not used to the glass insulators. He finished seventh.

The biggest surprise was Australia's diminutive Laura Monckton finishing fourth. She was a fast climber, but her technique on the cemented styles was a big edge. Instead of a wrench, she used preset vise-grip pliers to grab the spindle nut and then spun it off in less than 1 second. 

Woodward had a big advantage in winning the bronze, since he climbs "cat fashion" with his emery-lined Levis -- and thus can dart to the pole at the gun without taking the 7 to 9 seconds to don climbers like the other contestants. He also saves time by using wool socks for each insulator in the grab pouch instead of paper or loose rags used by most others. He would have finished even higher, maybe even the gold medal, except that he inadvertently undid the wrong end of one of the WU tie wires and lost valuable seconds. 

Woody was also at the center of a major controversy when two countries filed a joint protest. They contended that, since Woody's emery-clad pants were really just a substitute for the climbers worn by others, he should be made to change his pants at the rail after the starting gun on each run. The protest was ultimately disallowed on the basis that he normally wouldn't keep changing his pants back and forth as he motored from pole to pole searching out the goodies. 

Elton Gish was extremely methodical and well-practiced in all phases of the climb. He had memorized all the various tie-wire schemes they might have used on the two changeout insulators. In lieu of the grab pouch used by other contestants, he had a specially designed grab belt with individual fur-lined pouches for each of the six insulators to protect against damage penalties with no time at all used for wrapping. 

When Elton stood at the starting rail in the last rotation of the second run, he looked like a cinch for the gold if he didn't blow it. Everything went fine until he got to the sixth insulator, an optional one. There was one left, right at the pole-pin position, but he went for the transposition at the far end of the crossarm, just because it had a Fred M. Locke embossing. When he spun it oft the peg, he lost control, and it went crashing downward-most surely for the maximum 10-point damage penalty you get on a trashed insulator. When he careened down the pole, he found the insulator had lodged in one of the obstacle bushes in a way that broke only two drip points (total of only 4 seconds time penalty). He barely won the gold medal.

TOP 6 FINISHERS (2-run total):