Holly Bradshaw returns to action with victory

Sophie Cook cleared 4.40m for an outdoor personal best to finish second to Bradshaw.

The Euxton athlete moves up to third in the world rankings for this year after the victory.

Bradshaw tweeted: “473 stadium record, meet record & according to @Statman Jon highest opener outdoors ever.

“Had so much fun yesterday! With all the uncertainty over the last 5 months, it was just so nice enjoy a pole vault competition.”

Bradshaw has been in some of the best form of her life over the last two years as she build towards the delayed Tokyo Olympic Games next 
summer.

Having claimed bronze at the European Championships in Berlin in 2018, she followed that up by taking silver at European Indoors last year.

Later that summer, at the World Championships, in Doha, she finished just outside the medals in fourth after clearing 4.80m, which was just a centimetre under her personal best outdoors.

It is that kind of form which makes Bradshaw believe that her best years are still 
ahead.

In April she told the Chorley Guardian: “I was probably always going to go on until 2022.

“So the Olympics being postponed this year does not really affect me, only in that this year is going to be a bit of a down year for me.

“With all of the injuries that I have had, the last couple of years have definitely seen me produce some of my best form.

“The training I was doing before the lockdown was really good.”