Irie on fire as European season hots up

[completemadness]

COMPLETE MADNESS SPORTS
Press Release

Bedford, England. June 13th 2004

Irie on fire, as the season gets to the hot end!

Irie Hill set a new national record in the Women's pole vault on the weekend, beating her own previous record by 10cm to take the Over 35 record to 4.00m. It was Irie's first 4.00m (13') jump of the season, and came at the Bedford International Games where all her potential rivals for a spot in Athens took part, except for current UK number 1, Zoe Brown.

Irie, who has been preparing for the season in Australia, and then competed on the European circuit in the past 2 weeks, needs to clear 4.25m to have a chance of a place in Athens, or 4.40m to be sure. As the UK trials approach in 4 weeks time, Irie is feeling totally on track to attack both of these marks.

Entering the competition at 3.60m Irie had a first time clearance, and then at 3.80m she had one failure before sailing over the bar. She passed at 3.90m, a height at which all the favourites cleared. Tracey Grant, the UK number one in 2003 went clear, along with Hannah Olson which was the automatic qualifier for the World Junior Championships for her, and Ellie Spain, who recently jumped 3.95m at Loughborough. Liz Hughes also passed this height, after having cleared 4.05m last week in Loughborough she could feel aggrieved to not being picked for next weeks European Cup match.

The bar went up to 4.00m, and one by one each athlete failed to clear. On third attempts the last two to jump were Irie and Liz, with Irie slightly ahead due to having just one failure to this point. Both went clear, leaving the two of them to battle on. As the bar went up to 4.10m Irie began to feel the efforts of the day, and having flown in the day before, she was beginning to tire.

"I gave it everything at 4.10m and brushed the bar off with my chest on the way down! After moving up 2 poles today I didn't expect them to be that soft and was sure I could get 4.10m on the same pole I used for 4.00m. I was really pleased with my vaulting as technically I am improving with every competition, and I am now looking forward to competing in Bath on Wednesday night where I hope I can get closer to the Athens qualifier."

Irie will compete in the City of Bath open meeting on Wednesday, starting at 7pm, where she will team up with fellow CMS athlete Christian North.

Bedford International Games,
Women's pole vault, results.

1 Irie Hill (Complete Madness Sports) 4.00;
2 Liz Hughes (Blackheath and Bromley) 4.00;
3 Ellie Spain (Shaftesbury Barnet) 3.90;
4 Tracey Grant (Belgrave) 3.90;
5 Hannah Olson (Birchfield, U20) 3.90;
6 Natalie Olson (Birchfield, U20) 3.80

END OF RELEASE