Double medal success for Britain

Holly Bleasdale won a dramatic jump-off to become Britain's first-ever European pole vault champion
3 March 2013

Holly Bleasdale claimed Britain's first title at the European Indoor Championships, with team-mate James Dasaolu agonisingly close to making it a golden double in Gothenburg.

Bleasdale won gold in the pole vault following a dramatic jump-off with defending champion Anna Rogowska after both athletes had failed with three attempts at 4.72 metres and could not be separated on countback.

Dasaolu and France's Jimmy Vicaut were also inseparable in terms of time in the 60m final, but a photo-finish gave Vicaut the title and meant Dasaolu had to settle for silver, with both men given the same world-leading time of 6.48 seconds.

Britain still face an uphill task to match the target set by head coach Peter Eriksson of improving on the nine medals won in Paris two years ago, however, with Olympic bronze medallist Robbie Grabarz only sixth in the high jump and Shara Proctor denied a bronze medal in the long jump by just two centimetres in the final round.

Bleasdale, Britain's first-ever European pole vault champion, revealed she initially thought she had finished second.

"I knew they did them (jump-offs) but I've never ever been in one before," said the 21-year-old, who was sixth at the London Olympics but came into the competition as number one in Europe. "I thought I had just come second so I was waving to the crowd and then they told me I had to do a jump-off.

"I didn't really know what one was but I am glad we did it. We had the option to share the gold medal or do a jump-off and I wanted to do a jump-off. I wanted the gold medal to myself. I was in the moment and felt really good, and felt if I got my jump together I could clear the bar easily."

Dasaolu, 25, said afterwards: "I'm still taking it in that I've run 6.48, which is a really really quick time, and on top of that I got a silver. At the beginning of the championships I didn't think 6.48 would get a silver but I am just happy to be injury-free and enjoying competing. I haven't really seen the photo-finish, I will have to look back at it.

"I knew I was going to go 6.50 low but it's just nice to dip below that. It's my first world lead ever so I am extremely happy and hope I can carry this on to the outdoors."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Sign up you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy notice .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in