Bleasdale vaults into Olympics contention

Britain's Holly Bleasdale laid down an Olympic Games marker on Saturday when she went second on the all-time list of women's indoor pole vault performers. The 20-year-old leapt to 4.87 metres at a meeting in Lyon with only world record holder Yelena Isinbayeva (5.00m) having gone higher indoors in the history of the sport. And only Isinbayeva (5.06m), Jennifer Suhr and Svetlana Feofanova have bettered the mark outdoors. The British girl had already cleared 4.71m last month, but on Saturday she improved her own UK record by one centimetre with 4.72m and then raised the bar to 4.80m to regain the world-leading mark. Bleasdale then progressed to 4.87m before failing at an optimistic 5.01m. The British vaulter has improved rapidly this season after failing to achieve a single height in qualifying at last year's outdoor world championships in Daegu. She is currently training in France alongside men's European champion Renaud Lavillenie and is building towards the world indoor championships in Turkey in March.