Athletics: Buckfield lifts Britain out of the pole vault wilderness

There was a time when they were poles apart: the world's best vaulters and the best of Britain. Not any more, it would seem.

In Birmingham last Sunday Janine Whitlock beat Stacy Dragila, the reigning world and Olympic champion. And yesterday Nick Buckfield took a phone call from Sergei Bubka – the man who for so long was the pole vault – asking him to compete in his Pole Vault Stars competition in Donetsk on Sunday.

Buckfield also took centre stage yesterday at the announcement in London of the British team for the European indoor championships. And rightly so. The British record he set 12 days ago went largely unrecognised because it was achieved in the small north German town of Bad Segeberg. The world ranking list, however, shows the true value of Buckfield's 5.81m clearance.

The Crawley man stands in second place – the dizziest height any British pole vaulter has ever reached. The only man who has gone higher this year, with a 5.87m vault, is Jeff Hartwig, the American snake rancher who happens to be one of the eight vaulters who have followed Bubka over the great 6m barrier. "My agent showed me the world list at the weekend," Buckfield said, "and it was only then that it hit me. Yeah, it is amazing to be ranked No 2 in the world. And it is a great honour to be asked by Sergei Bubka to compete in his meeting. It's all nice for me, because I think a lot of people have forgotten how well I vaulted before I got all my injuries."

Buckfield finished fifth at the world championships in Athens in 1997 but has been dogged by injury since fracturing his pelvis in a fall while vaulting at the European championships in Budapest four years ago. Now, however, at the age of 28, he has worked his way up into pole position for the European indoor championships, which start in Vienna on Friday week.

No British vaulter has ever won a medal in the championships – or placed higher than sixth, the position Mike Bull achieved in Vienna 30 years ago. Not that Buckfield is banging the drum about becoming the first. "I know what I can achieve," he said, "and hopefully it will happen next weekend, but I won't put any pressure on myself. I'll have to vault well just to make the final. I'll just go there as Nick Buckfield from Crawley, not as someone ranked second in the world and ranked No 1 in Europe.

"It doesn't matter what you've done before or where you are in the rankings. That's the way I'll approach it."

And Buckfield has a proven record for shrewdness. As a 16-year-old footballing midfielder, he turned down the offer of a Youth Training Scheme post with Aldershot. "Yeah, it was a good decision," he reflected. "I think it was the next year that they virtually folded."

GREAT BRITAIN TEAM

MEN: 60m – J Gardener (Bath & Wessex AC), A Lashore (Blackheath), M Lewis-Francis (Birchfield). 200m – D Caines (Birchfield), C Malcolm (Cardiff), D Turner (Cardiff). 1,500m – M East (Newham & Essex Beagles), A Maclean (Team Solent). 3,000m – J Mayock (Barnsley). 60m hurdles – D Greaves (Newham & Essex Beagles), C Jackson (Brecon). Pole vault – N Buckfield (Crawley AC).

WOMEN: 60m – J Maduaka (Woodford Green/Essex Ladies). 400m – C Murphy (Shaftesbury Barnet). 800m – J Meadows (Wigan). 1,500m – H Tullett (Swansea). 60m hurdles – D Allahgreen (Trafford), R King (Belgrave). High jump – S Jones (Trafford). Pole vault – J Whitlock (Trafford). Triple jump – A Hansen (Birchfield).