Canadian record-holder was a member of the six-metre pole vault club and twice made the Commonwealth Games podium
Shawn Barber, the world champion in 2015 and Commonwealth Games medallist in 2014 and 2018, has died aged only 29.
According to news reports, he had been experiencing health problems and died from medical complications. His agency, Doyle Management, said: “A friend that will never be forgotten. Canadian Olympic pole vaulter Shawn Barber has passed away.
“He is currently the Canadian record-holder with his personal best of 6.00m and was the 2015 world champion in the pole vault. Shawn was also an Olympic finalist at the 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro. He will be greatly missed.”
Nine years ago in Beijing he became the first Canadian to win gold at the World Athletics Championships since sprint hurdler Perdita Felicien in 2003.
With a vault of 5.90m, the then 21-year-old took the title while the favourite Renaud Lavillenie of France was left to settle for bronze.
Shawn Barber (Mark Shearman)
Born in New Mexico, Barber held dual nationality with the United States but he lived in Toronto during his career and chose to represent Canada – a country that his father and coach competed for in pole vault in the 1983 World Championships.
In 2016 it emerged Barber had failed an in-competition drugs test for cocaine at the Canadian championships after accidentally ingesting the substance during a sexual encounter he arranged through Craigslist.
However he was allowed to compete at the Rio Olympics after it was decided by the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada (SDRCC) that he had inadvertently taken the substance after kissing a woman who had taken the drug minutes earlier.
He finished 10th in the Olympic final in Rio and finished eighth in the world final in London in 2017.
At the Commonwealth Games he finished runner-up to Kurtis Marschall of Australia in 2018 and took bronze at the 2014 Games behind English duo Steve Lewis and Luke Cutts.
His final competitions were in 2020.
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