Molly Caudery soars to victory in the British Indoor Championships
Silence descended upon the stadium as Molly Caudery gathered herself. Looking towards the bar she took a deep breath. Raised her hands above her head and begun to clap. The crowd followed her rhythm clapping in unison. With one final breath she raised the pole and ran towards her target. The crowd roared as she took flight. Silence. Floating through the air her body curled across the bar. Hitting the mat the crowd leapt into action screaming at the top of their lungs.
Molly Caudery is crowned pole vault champion at the British Indoor Championship. Not only did Caudery secure a personal best, vaulting a whopping 4.85metres, she flew to the position of World Leader in the event whilst jumping a championship record. This has set her up perfectly for an amazing World Championships in Glasgow in two weeks’ time.
She said: “It’s amazing, it’s almost overwhelming. I know that I’m in good shape but every time I’m jump high, I’m surprise myself. It’s just unbelievable to be honest.
“There’s no big secret, it’s just consistent training, building every single day and not doing too much. You just need to tick over each day and build that consistency.”
Not only did Molly perform so amazingly she took a shot at the British Indoor Record which currently stands at 4.87metres. Only 2 centimetres higher than her new World Lead. This record is now firmly in her sights for the Glasgow champs.
“It’s definitely in my sights, at Worlds. Records aren’t the thing that I’ll be focusing on, it will be medals and jumping as high as I can, but with that can come records, so we’ll see.”
Guest appearance from a World Champion
The excitement of the day didn’t end there, in the men’s 60metres there was a guest appearance from Dwain Chambers, former World and European Champion as well as M40+ world record holder.
He said: “I never left; I just went on an extended siesta. I had to revaluate what I wanted to do. I decided I want to run, coach and talk.”
Teammates Jeremiah Azu and Amy Hunt secured gold in the 60m sprints. Whilst Tade Ojora and Cindy Sember won the 60m hurdles.
Nielsen Twins reign victorious in the 400m
Twins Laviai and Lina Nielsen both provided dominant runs in the Women’s 400m races. After Laivia and Lina failed to make the Budapest World Championships in the solo event they ran like they had something to prove. Lina came away with a new lifetime best of 52.06 seconds. The twins have faced much adversity in their life as they both suffer with multiple sclerosis, but this didn’t stop them.
Lina said: “We use each other’s strength. I see it as a purpose to drive me a bit further, I have this profound strength that I just use. Earlier in the semi-final I saw Laviai go out so strong, so I just knew what I had to do.”
Both will go head-to-head on Sunday in what could be a battle for silver and gold.
On to Sunday
As the races heated up the 800m women’s saw Jemma Reekie qualify for the final, running the fastest in 2:06.21mins, whilst training partner Erin Wallace was close behind in her heat running 2:06.27mins. Both will go again in the final tomorrow.
In the men’s 800m, Guy Learmonth held a masterclass of front-running clocking the fastest qualifying time of 1:48.78mins dragging 3 of his competitors to personal-bests.
The day ended with the men’s and women’s 1500m heats that saw dominant runs from favourites Adam Fogg and Calum Elson in the men’s heats, whilst Reveé Walcott Nolan and Georgia Bell flew in the women’s heats.
