Asda Athletes

On Saturday, at the British Athletics League Division 1 Match at Barnet Copthall, I finally jumped a new significant personal best!

Conditions were very good, and feeling confident, I decided to take the competition very aggressively. With two other vaulters who have jumped over 5m in the competition, I knew it would take a personal best for me to win.

I started at 4.70m with a first time clearance, and then again at 4.90m. As the competition went up in 10s, my competitors took 4.60m, 4.80 and 5.00m.

Feeling confident, I decided to skip straight to a new personal best of 5.10m, knowing that should I clear it first time, it would put a lot of pressure on my competitors.

I put together a great jump to clear the bar on my first attempt, with the pole on the verge of being too soft. I think if I had have taken 5.00m, this may have prevented me from jumping 5.10m, so I am very happy with my tactics for this competition.

As my coach said; “Smart Vaulting!”

This means that now I have jumped 5m or higher 4 times in a row. The 5 metre barrier is a thing of the past! :)

I have uploaded a video of my 5.10m clearance, check it out!

-Dan

On Saturday 7th July, I competed at the English Schools Athletics Championships, for the 4th time. After 3 silver medals in this event in previous years, I was determined to finally win the competition.

The weather was bad all weekend, with the competition being postponed on friday morning due to flooding!Luckily, the weather cleared up for Saturday afternoon, and by the time I came in to the competition, the conditions were fairly good.

I won the competition with first time clearances at 4.70m, 4.90m and a new PB of 5.02m. I am very pleased with this result, as it was my first competition back from a hand injury, so to jump a PB was a good surprise.

There are no more big competitions for me this season, but I will keep competing, to have fun and to end the season with as high a Personal Best as possible.

The video shows the Sky Sports coverage of the pole vault competition, showing the top 3 athletes.

-Dan

I took my first UK Junior title today at the England Athletics u20/23 Championships and World Junior Trials! The pole vault was initially postponed on Saturday due to dangerous wind conditions, and the conditions weren’t much better today. A strong crosswind prevented me from jumping from my full approach, so I jumped from 12 strides instead of my usual 16.

I cleared 5.00m on my third attempt to take the win; a failure would have left me with the silver. This was my first outdoor 5m clearance, so it shows the potential for me to jump high from 16 steps!

Next competitions are hopefully the Olympic Trials next weekend, then English Schools Champs!

This video is of my 5.00m clearance today.

-Dan

I have enjoyed a well deserved rest week after the hard training leading up to, and my efforts at, the international combined events competition in Cardiff. I am feeling refreshed after a great winter season, and am ready to hit training hard for the summer.

Bigger poles, bigger grips and bigger jumps to come soon ;)

-Dan

Had a great weekend at the international combined events competition in Cardiff!

Day 1:
60m: 7.44s (Personal Best)
Long Jump: 6.69m
Shot: 9.70m (Personal Best)
High Jump: 1.75m

Day 2:
60m Hurdles: 8.79s (Personal Best)
Pole Vault: 4.95m
1000m: 2.57.9

Overall I scored 4899 points, a personal best score by 301 points, putting me ranked 1st in the UK for u20 heptathlon, and 23rd UK Junior of all time!

Check out the video of my best vault at 4.95m.

-Daniel