Latest news with #Caudery
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Caudery wins pole vault at Diamond League in Doha
Britain's Molly Caudery began her 2025 outdoor season with victory in the pole vault at the Diamond League meeting in Doha. The 25-year-old cleared 4.75m in warm and windy conditions at the Suheim bin Hamad Stadium in Qatar to finish top of the standings. Neither Roberta Bruni of Italy nor USA's Katie Moon could clear the height as they finished second and third with vaults of 4.63m. "I absolutely have a lot of fire in me and that's a good thing ahead of the new season," said Caudery. She won the World Indoor title last year to become Britain's first world champion in the discipline. However, Caudery failed to make the final of the event at last summer's Olympic Games in Paris. In the 1500m, Scotland's Jemma Reekie finished a credible third with a time of four minutes 7.33 seconds as Nelly Chepchirchir strode clear in 4:05.00, ahead of Kenyan team-mate Susan Ejore. Elsewhere, Amy Hunt finished third in the 100m in a time of 11.03 as she took .09 seconds off her personal best. The race was won by Tia Clayton, who outshone two-time Olympic 100m champion and Jamaican compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce. The 38-year-old Fraser-Pryce was competing on the Diamond League circuit for the first time in three years, but could only finish fourth as Clayton, 20, won easily in a world-leading time of 10.92. Clayton's twin sister Tina was second in 11.02, while Fraser-Pryce, competing in possibly her final season, clocked a season's best 11.05 for fourth. Reigning men's Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo produced a lacklustre performance for success in his signature event as he was almost caught on the line by Courtney Lindsey. Botswana's Tebogo ran a smooth bend but seemed to lack fluency in the home straight and glanced to his right at Lindsey as he crossed the line in a modest 20.10, one hundredth of a second ahead of the American. In the men's 800m, Tshepiso Masalela chased down Wycliffe Kinyamal to clock 1:43.11, the fastest time in the world this year. Meanwhile, Lawrence Okoye finished sixth in the discus with a throw of 65.01m, while fellow Briton Laviai Nielsen finished seventh in the 400m with a time of 52.02.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Molly Caudery fired up to defend World Indoor title after ‘grieving' for Paris Olympics
Molly Caudery will defend her women's pole vault title in Nanjing (David Davies/PA Wire) For Molly Caudery, the Paris Olympics were an unmitigated disaster, so much so that she 'grieved' for her Games for weeks afterwards. Caudery arrived with a spring in her step as the new world indoor champion and a serious medal contender, and so she finds what happened next hard to explain. All she knows is that she failed to clear the bar, and her Olympics were over before they ever got airborne. 'I may 'no-height' once a year or once every two years, and mine just happened to be on the biggest competition of my life,' she smiles. 'It's not ideal, but what can I do now? All I can do is learn from it and not let it happen again.' Advertisement Caudery entered the competition at 4.55m, well short of her 4.92m personal best and British record set a month earlier in Toulouse, but notably higher than many of her rivals who got their eye in at a lower height. She rejects the idea that that she might have started lower too. 'People who aren't in my close circle would see it that way, but for me, I always do that. There was no reason I should have come in earlier … I just wasn't rolling the poles through. I don't think the actual height of the bar would have made a difference. I know what I can jump. So, no, I probably won't change anything.' She admits the shock of that day took time to get over. 'The weeks after were really tough. I spent a lot of time with my family and friends and it was almost like a grieving period. But then it's like, what can you do? I can't go back and change time. I can only look forward to what's going on now and there is no point in living in that moment for too long.' Molly Caudery holds her head in her hands after failing to qualify for the women's pole vault final (Martin Rickett/PA) Caudery was devastated by her experience at the Paris Olympics (Martin Rickett/PA Wire) Caudery is looking forwards now, speaking to journalists via video from Nanjing, China, ahead of this weekend's World Athletics Indoor Championships which begin on Friday. Advertisement She is there as a significant part of a small, 11-athlete strong British team, featuring new European indoor 60m champion Jeremiah Azu and captained by 1500m runner Neil Gourley, and she has arrived in promising form with something to defend. Caudery's gold medal in this championship last year in Glasgow was a breakthrough moment for the 25-year-old from Cornwall, and she is determined to protect her crown as indoor pole vault queen. All three Olympic medallists in Paris are absent from the start list in China this weekend, and the door is open for Caudery to repeat the feat. 'I think I can still take a lot of confidence from last season and the heights that I was jumping and especially last indoors and getting that title. I would love to try and retain it and that's what I'm going to try and do. And that in itself is so exciting and I know that I am in a good position to be able to do that.' Pole vault is arguably the most bonkers of the athletics disciplines, the one whose most Googled queries are to ask who invented it and why. But it is also dazzling art and compelling theatre in equal measure, and the exploits of Armand Duplantis on the men's side have given the event a welcome surge. 'Pole vault is a a spectacle to watch' (Reuters) So it was something of a surprise when Michael Johnson's new Grand Slam Track event, launching next month in Jamaica, emerged without any field events at all in its plans. 'I think I can save track – not track and field,' Johnson said of athletics, a sport that only truly blooms to life at the Olympics every four years. Advertisement Caudery shrugs off the snub, pointing to the small but lively independent pole vault scene that draws a crowd of its own. 'We have so many amazing street meets,' she says. 'They may not have the same exposure and the same kind of money thrown at them, but the pole vault setups are great and they're set up for us to jump high. They are normally in small European towns and countries where loads of people locally come and watch and for me that's so much fun. That's why I do the sport. So I'm personally not too upset by it. On behalf of most field athletes it would be nice to have equality there but I am happy travelling around doing all these fun pole vault meets. 'It's a spectacle to watch. I've been to meets in a train station and people are just on their way to work or wherever they're going and there's just pole vault in the middle of it. And that's just so amazing to me. And I think if we could do more things like that, it's such a great way to get us out there and into the world.' Molly Caudery will defend her women's pole vault title in Nanjing (David Davies/PA Wire) Now Caudery is not just looking forwards but upwards, setting her sights on a new, ambitious goal for her season, which all builds to the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September. And it also helps explain why she won't be lowering the bar any time soon. Advertisement 'I would love to try and attempt five metres this year,' she says. 'I'm not someone who's going to come in at 4.70m, that is too high, but around that 4.50m mark is comfortable for me. And as long as I don't do anything really crazy, like I may have in Paris, it should be fine.' The Olympics hurt, but Caudery is determined to weaponise that pain. 'What I did get from Paris was an extra fire and extra desire for this year. I took that into the winter and I've trained so hard and I've come out this year and there is that extra want in me, and I think that's a positive thing.'
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
'Disappointed' Caudery misses out on world indoor medal
Great Britain's Molly Caudery was unable to defend her women's pole vault title as she finished fourth at the World Indoor Athletics Championships. Gold in Glasgow 12 months ago represented Caudery's first global title, but the 25-year-old fell agonisingly short of the podium in Nanjing, China. In a competition disrupted by technical issues, Caudery - with a season's best of 4.85m - missed out on a medal on countback after failing to clear 4.75m. The British record holder's second-time vault over 4.70m meant she finished behind silver and bronze medallists Tina Sutej and Angelica Moser, who both made that height at the first attempt, as France's Marie-Julie Bonnin cleared 4.75m for gold. The competition was delayed by around 40 minutes because of an issue with the technology that lifts the bar. Once it resumed, Caudery went over 4.70m - but she could not avoid catching the bar on her way back down in her attempts at 4.75m, despite appearing to have ample height. "I'm really disappointed - I wanted to come out here after last year and do something and I know that I'm in shape to do something," Caudery told BBC Sport. "But that competition was really hard. There were a lot of issues and we were waiting for nearly an hour at one point. "I'm not putting too much blame on myself. I'm not saying I couldn't have cleared that next bar because I think I had three good attempts. "I feel a bit flat, to be honest, after that." Caudery failed to qualify for the Olympic final last summer, despite entering Paris 2024 as one of the favourites after a breakthrough season in which she broke Holly Bradshaw's national record with a vault over 4.92m. Eager to use that disappointment to fuel a pursuit of more major titles, Caudery made a promising start to 2025 by clearing 4.85m in February. She took the decision to miss the European indoors two weeks ago to focus fully on her title defence here while she managed a minor calf injury, but will now fix her attention on a gold medal bid at the World Championships in Tokyo in September. GB's Azu sprints to 60m gold for first global title O'Connor had doubts before historic World Indoor silver Gourley 'more nervous' about speech as he reaches 1500m final Hunter Bell bids to add to GB World Indoor medal tally
BBC News
22-03-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
'Disappointed' Caudery misses out on world indoor medal
Great Britain's Molly Caudery was unable to defend her women's pole vault title as she finished fourth at the World Indoor Athletics in Glasgow 12 months ago represented Caudery's first global title, but the 25-year-old fell agonisingly short of the podium in Nanjing, a competition disrupted by technical issues, Caudery - with a season's best of 4.85m - missed out on a medal on countback after failing to clear British record holder's second-time vault over 4.70m meant she finished behind silver and bronze medallists Tina Sutej and Angelica Moser, who both made that height at the first attempt, as France's Marie-Julie Bonnin cleared 4.75m for gold. The competition was delayed by around 40 minutes because of an issue with the technology that lifts the it resumed, Caudery went over 4.70m - but she could not avoid catching the bar on her way back down in her attempts at 4.75m, despite appearing to have ample height."I'm really disappointed - I wanted to come out here after last year and do something and I know that I'm in shape to do something," Caudery told BBC Sport."But that competition was really hard. There were a lot of issues and we were waiting for nearly an hour at one point. "I'm not putting too much blame on myself. I'm not saying I couldn't have cleared that next bar because I think I had three good attempts. "I feel a bit flat, to be honest, after that."Caudery failed to qualify for the Olympic final last summer, despite entering Paris 2024 as one of the favourites after a breakthrough season in which she broke Holly Bradshaw's national record with a vault over to use that disappointment to fuel a pursuit of more major titles, Caudery made a promising start to 2025 by clearing 4.85m in took the decision to miss the European indoors two weeks ago to focus fully on her title defence here while she managed a minor calf injury, but will now fix her attention on a gold medal bid at the World Championships in Tokyo in September.
BBC News
20-03-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Olympic heartbreak 'fuels' Caudery for titles & records
It was, as Molly Caudery says, simply "a bad day to have a bad day".But the 25-year-old's acceptance of her Olympic disappointment seven months ago, her measured response accompanied by a smile on her face, presents an ominous warning to her wasted little time in recasting her failure to qualify for the Paris 2024 final as fuel in her pursuit of future success, with the next major target the defence of her world indoor title in Nanjing, China, this an outstanding breakout season, Britain's pole vault star celebrated that world indoor gold in Glasgow and broke Holly Bradshaw's British record with a vault over 4.92m to position herself among the favourites in Paris last Caudery endured a brutal - and in her own words "heartbreaking" - setback at the Stade de France where, despite arriving as the world-leader in the event, she failed to clear her opening height of 4.55m."I still cant really put it down to anything specific," she tells BBC Sport."More than anything it has fuelled me. It has given me this extra drive that I did not know I had. "You've got to make the best of a bad situation but it is not something I think about too much in a negative way. It's in the past, I have moved on and I'm in a much better place." It was at the World Indoor Championships 12 months ago where everything changed for Caudery. Glory in Glasgow came at only her second global championship, having announced herself on the world stage by finishing fifth in Budapest the previous performances had proven her penchant for delivering on the biggest stages before Paris - and it is those heights Caudery wants to reach again as she targets two global titles in on Glasgow, she says: "That moment changed my life. It opened up so many opportunities, made me love the sport even more and it was just so much fun. "Last year was my first stepping on to the elite stage and my name becoming known a bit more. To be able to go and do it [in Glasgow] meant so much and gave me so much confidence."I hated that people thought in Paris, 'maybe she can't perform under pressure'. I don't think that was the case. I love competing in front of a big crowd and I would usually count myself as a championship performer. "That was almost an anomaly and that's OK, I just don't want it to happen again." Caudery chose to miss the European indoors to focus fully on Nanjing where, as a result of the eight-hour time difference, the women's pole vault final will begin at 02:10 GMT on Saturday, live on the decision was taken to manage a calf injury - a minor stress for an athlete whose extensive list of previous injuries includes almost losing a finger in a freak gym accident in a promising start to the year, the Cornwall-born athlete cleared 4.85m in Madrid in February to win the overall World Indoor Tour Gold is a height five centimetres higher than any of her 12 rivals for world gold have managed this season, and in a line-up missing the entire Olympic podium."Nothing is a given but if I go out there and jump my best I can hopefully retain my title, which is what I'm going out there to do," adds Caudery."It's going to be such a fun year. Last year I was just emerging on the scene and it was all very new."Nanjing marks her first major test in a year leading to the World Championships in Tokyo in September. But, as Armand Duplantis continues to offer record-breaking entertainment in the men's event, Caudery believes her pursuit of major titles can also bring her closer to Russian Yelena Isinbaeva's mark of 5.06m which has stood for almost 16 though, the challenge will be to join the elite five-metre club - a height only four women in history have managed to is an achievement Caudery, at peace with her Paris pain and with new targets in sight, feels is now within reach."We've never focused too much on heights, but I'm really close to that five-metre mark now and that's a really big thing," says Caudery, who is seventh on the all-time list."I probably could have given it a good go [during this indoor season], and that's been taken away from me. I'm just excited to get back to being healthy, competing a lot and having more attempts at five metres."The bar after that would probably be the world record. Just having these conversations is so exciting."
