by Stuart Weir
Women’s Pole-vault
What’s not to like about a high quality women’s pole-vault competition? There were 12 athletes in the competition including the American Moll twins. We started at 4.24 and after 4.44 twelve had been reduced to ten. At 4.54 we lost Amanda Moll. As they say, she may be an elite vaulter but she isn’t even the best in her family! Seven athletes cleared 4.64. Only Katie Moon, Molly Caudery and Hana Moll cleared 4.74 with Sandi Morris dropping out at this point. At 4.80, Caudery and Moon continued their sequence of first-time clearances at every height. Hana Moll had three failures. 4.85 challenged the two remaining vaulters with Caudery failing three times and Moon succeeding only with a third attempt. Moon failed at 4.90 leaving the result
1 Katie Moon 4.85
2 Molly Caudery 4.80
3 Hana Moll 4.74
Katie Moon commented: “I’m so happy. I felt like my US championships didn’t go the way I had hoped. I felt technically I was not executing very well. And so I really wanted to come in here and just execute very good technical jumps. And I feel like I did that. 4.85 It’s a nice height – particularly as I hadn’t jumped 4.80 or higher in the Diamond League circuit yet this year. It just means that we’re, hopefully, peaking at the right time. It’s a long season so to be able to be jumping my highest heights towards the end of the season is what you would want. Diamond Leagues are important as these are the women you’re gonna see at the World Championships. So it’s good to just get out and battle with them and put some pressure on myself, to come in here and battle it out with literally the best in the world. It’s just good practice for a world championship. This was really what I was hoping for, especially going into Tokyo and the Diamond League Final”.
Molly Caudery, who had cleared 4.85 to win the GB champs, said: “I’m really pleased with another 4:80 jump. I think my consistency is there. Unfortunately I had three run throughs where I didn’t take off at 4:85 which is quite frustrating but it’s just really small changes and I think everything could come together which is exciting. And I think timing wise, that’s great. It’s been a bit of a rocky season. I’ve had a few ups and downs. So to be coming into form now is good. Last year I learned so much, I kind of came onto the scene quite fast and every competition I’ve done since has been an experience. Going into worlds, I’ve got a different kind of perspective from what I did going into the Olympics. I’m so ready to compete for the world title. And that’s why I’m actually quite frustrated today. But I don’t think that’s a bad kind of emotion to be feeling. I know that I’ve got more and I just need to be able to express that and, yeah, that’s a good place to be, I think”.
