Lewis makes history in Canada
by Tom Gayle
17 year old Steven Lewis made British history
at the World Youth Games by becoming the first athlete from these shores to
claim a medal in the pole vault event at World Championship level.
After a comfortable qualification for the final, which involved the
meticulous preparation of getting up at 5.50am in order to get his body
clock in sync with the 9.00am start time, a shot at a medal was always going
to require something special as he was ranked 5th on paper going
into the event. One thing about Steven Lewis though, he and his coach Dave
Young make a habit of reproducing the priceless trait of rising to the
occasion when it counts.
Despite a testing start to the competition,
where he required two attempts for his opening height of 4.75m, he was
assured a medal after clearing 4.95m at his first attempt (a height which
saw the pre championship favourite Kostadinos Filippidis of Greece exit the
competition who boasted a personal best of 5.22m).
This left Lewis, German Chiaraviglio
(Argentina) and Dmitry Starodubtsey (Russia) to battle it out for the title.
Both Lewis and Starodubtsey were entering new territory when the bar was
raised to 5.05m, but the two set new personal figures, and joined
Chiaraviglio with first time clearances.
After seeing the opposition go clear at
5.10m, a height that Lewis had already failed once, with victory still
clearly his focus, Steven went for broke by passing this height, and
rejoined the contest at 5.15m.
The gamble didn’t pay off, as he was
unsuccessful with his two attempts, but considering the significance of what
he had achieved already he must of felt like he had won, as when put into
perspective regardless of how many medals are won at global level in this
event by Great Britain, in the near, or far distant future, the sport will
always have to remember who lead the way, City of Stoke’s Steven Lewis!
U18 Men
Pole Vault
Qualifying Group A
3. Steven Lewis (Great Britain) 4.70
Final
3. Lewis 5.05 (4.75xo, 4.95o, 5.05o, 5.10x,
5.15xx)
Reports on how the rest of the Great Britain
team faired in Canada can be found at www.ukathletics.net,
while full results, event reports and pictures from the games can be found
at www.iaaf.org/WYC03/index.html
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