Athletics: Kate wants pole

Pole vaulter Kate Dennison insists the "sky's the limit" following her stunning British record breaking exploits so far this season.

The South-African born star not only cleared Janine Whitlock's four-year-old mark of 4.47 metres with a jump of 4.51m in Prague on June 8 but since then has gone on to eclipse her own best twice.

Having raised the bar further to 4.55m later in the month at the European Team Championships in Leiria, Dennison then improved on this by an extra centimetre at the Meeting de Atletisimo in Madrid last weekend.

Her recent success follows on from a thoroughly encouraging indoor season in which she raised her own national record for a third time - having initially claimed it when surpassing Whitlock's previous mark of 4.44 by a centimetre at the UK Championships in February - to 4.49m in a meeting in Oyannax, France.

This gave her the belief and confidence to finally join the 4.50m club in the summer and although such a breakthrough season was expected sooner or later, it's still a remarkable achievement considering she ended an injury-hit 2008 with a personal best of 4.40 at the Beijing Olympics.

Jumping well

Now the 25-year-old is hoping to make an impact at this summer's World Championships in Berlin and admits she'll have to fix her sights even higher if she's to reach the final.

Dennison, speaking at an Aviva UKA Academy training session at the Loughborough High Performance Athletics Centre, said: "Breaking 4.50metres was the biggest breakthrough because I finished the indoor season just short of that so still wasn't a part of the 4.50 club yet.

"But it's a key stepping stone towards getting me to jump higher and the next target is obviously now 4.60.

"I finished with 4.40m in Beijing but I'd barely had a full season having been injured for most of it so it made me wonder how far I could go when I'm jumping well, fully fit and with more confidence under my belt.

"Getting your head round the bigger heights and feeling more confident to go for them is the key and once I'd broken the first British record I was thinking the sky's the limit really. Now I'm the British record holder it's now up to me to take it on - and hopefully I will.

"As I say, the big aim is now to clear 4.60m and I'd need to do that if I'm to make the final at the World Championships so if I try to get my head round that then in a couple more competitions I should be up there."

Dennison is far and away the British number one but doesn't think the lack of fierce domestic competition - which will be evident at the Aviva World Trials and UK Championships - is holding her back in any way as she attempts to further close the gap on the leading names, including world record holder Elena Isinbaeva.

"I compete a lot abroad anyway and I compete against the rest of the world so that's my new target," she added. "If you're the British record holder you have to look towards the world standard and beating those rivals.

"There's obviously Isinbaeva at the top but a whole bunch of girls beneath her between 4.60 and 4.80 so it's all about chipping away at those now."

Opportunity

While her realistic target for Berlin in August is just to simply to reach the final, Dennison believes such a result will keep her on track for medal chances in the future, of course culminating at the London 2012 Olympics when she'll be at her peak.

The Sale Harrier said: "My first target will be to reach the final and having made it there anything can happen. If I can be an underdog in the final and perhaps finish top eight or top six then that will be a great achievement.

"This year is all about making finals and next year - which is Europeans and Commonwealth - there will be the chance of medals so that will bring me on nicely for 2011 and 2012.

"By that time I'd be hoping to be at least 4.80 for a chance of a medal - although I can't be sure of what will be required - so that's what I'm aiming at long term. I'll be 28 then and I think that's a great age to be hitting a second Olympics.

"I'll be at my peak hopefully so with the experience of an Olympics already behind me it should bode well for me.

"Hopefully there will be more British women pushing me then but to be honest I can only think about myself because it's an individual event and it's up to me to succeed."

Dennison has been involved in the Aviva UKA Academy training sessions, which are designed to give every child in the UK the opportunity to get involved in athletics by 2012, and is hoping to inspire youngsters to give her event a try.

She said: "I'm obviously very honoured to do this and if I can in any way help to get these kids involved and inspired then I'd be delighted to do it.

"I was more involved in gymnastics when I was younger so I missed this kind of age group but when I did start doing pole vault I remember meeting Janine Whitlock who was the current British record holder at the time.

"That was really inspiring for me and I would say it played a major role in my development. If I could go onto be a role model like that then it would be a great honour."