British star Molly Caudery wins World Indoor Championships gold after pole vault rival suffered horror injury

British star Molly Caudery wins World Indoor Championships gold after pole vault rival suffered horror injury

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Stuart Ballard

By Stuart Ballard


Published: 02/03/2024

- 21:27

Updated: 02/03/2024

- 21:57

Great Britain's Molly Caudery won pole vault gold in the World Indoor Championships after an eventful final.

Molly Caudery dealt with a disrupted pole vault final that saw one competitor withdraw minutes before and another wheeled out on a stretcher to take gold and become the world indoor champion on Saturday night.

The British Olympic hopeful headed into the World Indoor Championships on excellent form having cleared a world-leading height of 4.85m at the UK Indoor Championship last month.


She admitted heading into the event in Glasgow that put a "little bit of pressure" on herself to win a medal.

The 23-year-old's hopes of winning a medal were helped just moments before the final got underway when Canadian Alysha Newman pulled out with an ankle injury.

Molly Caudery competed in a dramatic pole vault final

Molly Caudery competed in a dramatic pole vault final

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Newman had picked up the injury during a practice run earlier in the week having recently cleared a height of 4.83m.

The final was then paused for nearly 15 minutes early on when France's Margot Chevrier suffered a horror ankle injury.

Chevrier aborted an attempt at 4.65m on her third attempt and suffered a nasty fall into the box and screamed in pain.

Reports stated her 'bone was sticking out' of her left ankle as she received medical attention before being wheeled out of the arena.

After a brief delay, the pole vault final got back underway with Caudery showing no signs of nerves after witnessing the horror injury.

The Cornwall-born pole vaulter continued to clear height after height as her rivals faltered.

It was left between Caudery and New Zealand's Eliza McCartney for gold and silver.

But it was advantage to the Great Britain star after clearing 4.80m at her second attempt while McCartney went over on her third.

Molly Caudery won gold by clearing 4.80m

Molly Caudery won gold by clearing 4.80m

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Caudery was up first and failed to clear the next height at 4.85m, but McCartney bizarrely left herself needing to clear 4.90m to win gold after passing on her previous attempt.

And the New Zealander failed to clear the height, resulting in Caudery being crowned world indoor champion.

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Margot Chevrier suffered a horror ankle injury during the final

Margot Chevrier suffered a horror ankle injury during the final

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Caudery was sat up against the hoardings along with her competitors when McCartney failed her final attempt and put her hands over her face after learning she had been crowned world indoor champion.

The British athlete then showed her class by running over to McCartney to embrace her opponent.

Her gold medal came just minutes after Scottish-native Josh Kerr won 3000m gold in front of the boisterous home crowd.

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