Fearless Bleasdale Leaps Into Contention Ahead of London 2012 Olympics

As Holly Bleasdale gazed up at the bar – a full 4.70m above the crash mat she now rested on – the enormity of her achievement at the Banhaus Gala in Mannheim had not yet settled in. Preston’s 19-year-old upstart had cleared a height that demolished the previous British senior record and established her as a world record holder for her age group. Four metres and seventy centimeters proved enough distance to transform Bleasdale from promising youngster to genuine Olympic contender, and the future of British pole-vaulting had convincingly announced her arrival.

The scale of Bleasdale’s achievement in Mannheim can only be truly appreciated in the context of her relative inexperience; having only taken up the discipline in 2008, a jump of 4.70m propelled the teenager to joint fourth in the 2011 world rankings at the time.  It still seemed a little premature, but British pole-vaulting finally had the makings of a superstar.

“From day one I just wanted to take it in my stride,” Bleasdale recalls of her earliest days in the sport. Having previously trained as a hurdler, a gymnast and making various efforts in a number of jumping and throwing events, Bleasdale eventually took up the opportunity to experience a pole-vaulting taster session in 2008, and the precocious talent is yet to look back.

“I’d been down in Blackburn doing the hurdles, but never found an event that I really wanted to be in,” Bleasdale explains. “They put taster sessions on for the pole-vault and I thought I’d give it a whirl and take it from there.

“My current coach was the first guy I met in the sport. The fact that I wasn’t scared and threw myself at it was one of my best qualities. He found out later that I had good strength, so I could take bigger poles and run much quicker. I think that’s how they identified that I could be good in the sport.”

Within three years, Bleasdale’s startling rate of progress left her toe-to-toe on the world rankings with Svetlana Feofanova and world indoor champion Fabiana Murer. Prior to 2008 – the year Bleasdale took up the discipline – Feofanova had already established herself as a double Olympic medalist, World champion, World Indoor champion and European champion. It was evident that Bleasdale - who recently appeared at the Aviva Athletics Roadshow in Birmingham - had a lot of catching up to do, and with time on her side she refused to hesitate in doing exactly that.

“I’ve got the 19-year-old world record, and it gives me the boost needed to want to get the 20-year old and the under-23 record. I relish the challenge to chase each record and set my name in history, it spurs me on when I’m training, when they want me to go at it that little bit harder.

“I broke my foot and came back without knowing how I would jump, but I jumped well and won the bronze medal at the worlds. I thought, ‘If I’ve improved this much after an injury, what else can I do?’”

The European under-23 title followed just two weeks subsequent to Mannheim, whilst a British outdoor gold – achieved in the tame time span – confirmed her place in the squad for the World Championships in Daegu. Whilst the tournament in South Korea proved the first setback in her development – she failed to record a jump in the Daegu stadium – Bleasdale took the failure as a platform to become stronger.

“I had a very long season, and because I’m still quite new to the event I wasn’t as fit as the others who have perhaps been doing it for ten years. I find it difficult to hold my peak for as long, so to hold it all the way up until the beginning of September [for the Daegu World Championships] I found really challenging.

“I learned a lot, and now I know it won’t be happening again because I’ll be getting fitter and using Daegu as experience for the future.

“Every year I have jumped a massive PB and surprised myself. Eventually you plateau, but I really think that in this next year I can improve a lot again. I am going to keep building on it until I get to where I want to be, which is winning a gold medal at the Olympics.”

Indeed, the priority for many British athletes is now the impending London 2012 Olympic Games, which rest tantalisingly on the horizon. Despite slipping to thirteenth in the most recent World rankings list, Bleasdale has every reason to set the bar of expectation much higher.

“London 2012 is the main priority,” Bleasdale concedes, with an excited anticipation evident in her tone. “There are other competitions, like the World Indoors, but they are just stepping-stones. Now my focus is the 2012 Olympics and to peak for that. As long as I can keeping training hard, I really think the top 6 will be a major aim for me.”

Bleasdale’s intentions are clear and her talent undeniable; it seems nothing will prove to be a distraction from the potentially dizzying heights of an Olympic podium. I tentatively put it to her that pole-vaulting can in some instances be a case of life and death; “I’ve never thought about it like that,” she calmly responds.

“It is quite a scary event, but it never crosses my mind when I’m in the moment. Some pole-vaulters go through a blip of being scared but keep running through, but I’ve never had that. I just launch myself at it – I want to improve and so I just go for it.

“You have to be fearless to do the pole vault, and to be honest I just don’t care. If I feel like I’m going to die, I’ll just carry on.”

Aviva has been a proud supporter of British athletes since 1999. To find out more about the Aviva Athletics Road-show, go to aviva.co.uk/athletics or follow us on Twitter @AvivaAthletics

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