UK Championships success

My recent competition at the UK Championships went really well, finishing with a respectable 4th place. I am now setting my sights for my next competitions in America.

The UK Championships in Sheffield on 8-9 February was another great competition where I finished in the top 5. The standard of the competition was exceptionally high for a UK pole vaulting contest, so it was a huge opportunity to compete with other great athletes.

I had high hopes of coming home with a medal and placing within the top three. It was rather annoying, as the athletes who placed in third, fifth and sixth, all cleared with the same height of 5.30m. Therefore, I narrowly missed out on third place, as the athlete who did come third, did so on their first attempt.  I didn’t do as well as I would have liked but the overall competition was really good and as ever, the atmosphere from a home crowd was amazing.

On Thursday, 13th February, I was at a meet where I competed for Loughborough University against athletes from the RAF, army, navy and other various British universities, held at Sheffield Indoor Arena.  The competition went considerably well, bearing in mind that I had only competed in my biggest competition of my indoor season only four day previous. Not to worry, as I jumped another Commonwealth qualifier of 5.20m!

This time, I used a shorter approach of 14 strides, as I was still quite tired from the UK Championships. I had a few excellent attempts at 5.41m, which would have been another personal best for me, but still puts me in good stead for the Commonwealth Games in July.

My next big challenge is going out to America in April to compete in the Mt,Sac Relays. This competition is massive in America where all the big names come out and compete to open their outdoor season. This will be an enormous opportunity for me as I will be competing against some of the best pole vaulters in the world. I am also looking to secure more competitions whilst I’m out there.

Until my next blog, I’ll be putting in more hours of hard training for the competition out in America and for the Commonwealth Games. I hope you are enjoying my updates.