Kate Dennison is setting her sights on a record-breaking display at the World Indoor Champs.
Dennison is setting her sights on another record-breaking display
Kate Dennison has been breaking the Brtish pole vaulting record for fun in recent season - and now she has another best in her sights at the World Indoor Championships.
The 25-year-old Sale Harrier warmed up for the March 12-14 event in Doha with a brilliant 4.60m vault in the Aviva international Birmingham Grand Prix to capture British record number nine.
"It was great to push the bar that bit higher again in Birmingham," Dennison explained.
"It has been a challenging indoor season - setting a national record early on in the season (with 4.57 in January) has meant that at every competition I have been attempting 4.58 or higher. It was quite a relief to get it last weekend.
"It's been a solid winter's training which has helped in my preparations for the indoors and I am feeling in great shape and really looking to peak at the World Championships in Qatar."
Based at the Centre of Excellence in Loughborough, Dennison has come a long way since swopping sports to take up the event in 2000. Fourth in the Under-12 Nationals but frustrated with her stagnating progress in gymnastics, Dennison found the transition to pole-vaulting easy.
On switching sports Dennison, who uses sport psychologists to remain focused in the dangerous event, explained: "I think gymnastics really helps with spatial-awareness in the air and instils a strong discipline from an early age.
"I suppose that having never competed internationally as a gymnast, I thought I had reached a plateau and so I thought it was time for a change.
Excited
"Gymnastics and pole-vaulting have some similar core skills and it was a sport that really excited me."
With a mother who had swum for Zambia and a brother of international-class in her former sport, Dennison had talented sporting genetics to aid the switch and unsurprisingly, she won national age-group titles from the offset for the first four years of her athletic career.
In 2002, Dennison progressed to become the first British junior to vault four metres at the World Junior Championships in Jamaica and took her first national senior title four years later.
Dennison, a Staffordshire University graduate, turned full-time in 2006, where she placed seventh in the Commonwealth Games and improved to replicate the same position - with 4.40m - in her heat of the 2008 Olympics in the Bird's Nest in Beijing.
"I had had a problematic 2008 with injuries and illness," Dennison revealed. "Getting to Beijing was in the balance and I realised I had to make the most of every opportunity. Thankfully, the medical team did a wonderful job and I made it to the Olympics for an amazing experience. It will be invaluable come 2012."
Dennison then underwent surgery on both Achilles after the 2008 Games but bounced back with a record-breaking 4.45m in the 2009 UK Indoor Championships before moving on to place sixth in the European indoors.
Breakthrough
Despite the injury-plagued autumn and winter, summer 2009 was to be Dennison's breakthrough season, as she vaulted 4.51m and 4.55m on the European circuit ahead of 4.57m for the UK outdoor title.
Eager to capitalise on her refreshed form, Dennison finished a brilliant sixth in the World outdoor Championships in Berlin - a huge improvement from finishing 13th in her heat at the 2007 event in Osaka.
Dennison, who names her first national record as her proudest achievement, explained: "2009 was definitely my breakthrough season. I felt fresh and energised and had a brilliant year. 2010 has started off in the same way and it is all about building on that now.
"Making the World Championship final in Berlin was a big step and to finish 6th was amazing - the aim now is to consistently make world finals and move closer to the medals."
A height of 4.60m was reached shortly after the championships, marking her ninth British record in the past eight months and after a short break and holiday, Dennison returned to the run-way in 2010 with great confidence.
Dennison is already jumping 20cm higher this indoor season than last and has broken her British best no more than four times in the past two months alone.
Collecting her fifth-successive national indoor title with a 19cm winning-margin, Dennison has now set her sights on an event in Paris before the main goal of more achievements in Doha.
After the World indoors and a short break, Dennison will focus on improving on her eighth place in qualifying at the 2006 European Championships in this July's event (in Barcelona) as well as possibly targeting a medal in the Commonwealths Games (in New Delhi in October).
