Holly Bleasdale, 2010 World Junior Champs, photo by PhotoRun.net
Holly Bleasdale went to France to train with Renaud Lavillenie, the number one male ranked vaulter in the world and the European Indoor champion. She first cleared 4.72m, a strong improvement. Then, on January 22, 2012, Holly Bleasdale cleared 4.87m! Yes, 4.87m! A new British record, and at the time, the number two jump indoors, only behind Yelena Isinbayeva. Bleasdale went from promising vaulter to medal contender. Here is how we have seen her progress and how the current world record holder for male vaulter, Sergey Bubka, sees the potential of Holly Bleasdale.
Holly Bleasdale, 2010 World Junior Champs, photo by PhotoRun.net
So, on January 22, Holly Bleasdale moved onto the world scene with a huge improvement, to 4.87m vault indoors! Boom! Holly goes from a good vaulter to number two all time, and highest jumper of 2012. Holly’s jump is new British record indoors. Now, she is the focus of GBR media as her performance has opened some real eyes!
On February 4, Jenn Suhr, breaks AR in Boston, MA with 4.88 m or sixteen feet event. Now, Jenn Suhr is number one for 2012, and Holly Bleasdale is number two. On the all time lists, it is Yelena Isinbayeva, Jenn Suhr and Holly Bleasdale.
I had been spelling Holly’s last name wrong for about two weeks, so I corrected that today. I also found a nice piece where Sergey Bubka, who witnessed Holly’s 4.87m clearance noted, “She was fantastic.” The world record holder in the men’s pole vault noted that Holly is a medal contender.
The women’s pole vault continues to reach higher and higher levels of performance. With vaulters from Brazil (World Champ Indoors Fabiana Murer), Germany, Russia, U.S., Great Britain, the event continues to gain supporters and fans.
Holly Bleasdale’s jumping was a paradigm changer for British women vaulters. Now, UK athletics has a women vaulter who can contend for a medal in London 2012. Should be interesting…
To read article on Holly and Sergey Bubka’s comments: http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/athletics/9515639.Legend_Bubka_backs_Bleasdale/
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Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys.
Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
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by Larry Eder
