Sean Barber dies: Canadian pole vaulter dies at age 29

CNN
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Canadian world pole vault champion Sean Barber has died at the age of 29, his agent Paul Doyle told CNN on Thursday.

Canadian barber appointment Record men's pole vault in January 2016. He won the gold medal at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto and also won the IAAF World Championships in Beijing, China, later that year.

Barber died at his home in Kingwood, Texas, on Wednesday due to medical complications. According to a statement From the University of Akron Department of Athletics.

As an undergraduate, Barber was a member of the University of Akron's track and field team, where he won the NCAA championship three times.

“Barber has become ill and has been in poor health for some time,” the athletic department’s statement said.

The university remembered Barber as a “beloved colleague and competitor” in the statement.

“More than just a great athlete, Sean was a kind-hearted person who always put others before himself,” Doyle told the Associated Press, which he confirmed to CNN. “It is tragic to lose such a good person at such a young age.”

Barber made his Olympic debut at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and earned a place in the final, which was later won by Thiago Braz of Brazil.

It was his best cellar 6 metres, which is still the Canadian record, according to Olympics.com.

Barber is survived by his brother, David, his mother, Anne, and his father, George, according to the University of Akron statement.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly described Barber's record. He set the Canadian men's pole vault record.