Published: Friday, 21st March, 2008 09:00
Silver Scott vaults to new national record
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MUSSELBURGH pole vaulter Scott Huggins landed silver in the British University Championship in Sheffield last weekend.
The 18-year-old, who is in his first year studying sports science at Brunel University, leapt to a new height of 5m.
Huggins improved his personal best by five centimetres and recorded a new Scottish junior indoor record in the process.
He is now the eighth best vaulter in the UK and will concentrate on the World Junior Championships in July.
But his Sheffield heroics proved to be in vain as Bath student Christian North, number five in Britain, leapt to the gold medal with a jump of 5m 10cm, with Salford’s Matt Cullen claiming bronze in the event.
Huggins said: “It’s a big milestone for me and it means a lot to get the Scottish record as well.
“I have been jumping 4m 90cm consistently all season, but every time I have gone up the bar at five metres, I haven’t managed to get my head around it.
“I either over-run it or do not get high enough and it hasn’t worked out. But in Sheffield I did and I’m absolutely delighted.
“I hold the outdoor record already at 4m 81cm, so I’m hoping to beat that in the summer.
“I didn’t really fancy that I would do well here. but I managed to pull it out and it was a gutsy performance.”
The Blackheath and Bromley Athletics Club star believes that this year will prove to be the one where he will make his senior breakthrough in the sport as the countdown to the 2012 London Olympics continues.
He said: “I’ve got the World Juniors this year, which has a qualifying standard of 5m 20cm.
“So if I think positively and keep working towards that, then there is a possibility it could happen.
“That’s my aim for the year.”
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