WONDER WALLS
MATT FINISHES WITH GOLD AS GB BREAK VELODROME DUCK
AFTER all her lows, Holly Bradshaw soared high into the Tokyo sky and came down an Olympic bronze medallist last night. It took a 4.85metre vault off her pole, and before that years of hard falls in big championships, but finally she had her happy landing.
When it was done, she wrapped herself in a Union flag, gave a little fist pump and walked the perimeter of a deserted stadium.
It was empty, of course, and it was largely silent, as usual. But how she beamed. If ever a bronze can feel like a gold, it would be in the hands of Bradshaw, 29, who has given so many tears to her near misses and injuries.
‘I honestly can’t believe it and I don’t know what emotion it is that I am experiencing,’ she said. ‘I’m so torn with just elation, enjoyment, relief, excitement. I can’t put it into words.
‘It’s something I’ve been working for my whole life and my whole career and I didn’t know if it was ever going to come my way. Queen of the fourth, fifth, sixth. But it finally did and I cannot believe it, I’m so happy.’
On a day when Dina Asher-Smith edged towards Olympic redemption by leading the 4x100m relay team to a national record and a place in the final today, Bradshaw truly stole the show.
She was one of only five women to clear the opening 4.50m at the first go, and one of three to get over 4.70 in two. After navigating 4.80, she was suddenly part of a four-way shootout, in line with expectations for a vaulter who ranked third in the world this year after a 4.90 British record in June. But expectations around Bradshaw have not always been met by mettle and metal.
Since her world indoor bronze in 2012, she has gone sixth and fifth at the Olympics; seventh, sixth and fourth at the World Championships; fourth at Commonwealth Games, third at a European Championships.
A good body of work, that, and there have been world and European indoor medals.
But did that make her a nearly woman? One of those athletes whose talent was superior to her haul?
Even with all her injuries — surgery on her back, knee and achilles tendon came in successive seasons between 2014 and 2017 — it was hard to shake the sense that better prizes wouldn’t come. Maybe Nike felt the same when they cut her sponsorship in 2019.
But she never relented and good for her. She kept a picture on her phone of her tears at finishing sixth at the London World Championships in 2017, always believing when others didn’t that she could complete the job. And so to the battle for medals. Greek athlete Katerina Stefanidi, the defending champion, was struggling from the start, needing three goes to get over each of the bars at 4.50 and 4.70.
Stronger was the American Katie Nageotte, the best in the world this year, and also the Russian Anzhelika Sidorova.
At the 4.80 mark, the competition was getting intense but Bradshaw cleared at the second attempt, Sidorova and Nageotte the first.
Over to Stefanidi, who failed once and immediately chanced her luck on jumping to 4.90. She tried twice and couldn’t get it done; Bradshaw went over 4.85 and was a bronze medallist. Nageotte won with 4.95 and Sidorova was second on 4.85, beating Bradshaw on countback.
With the breakthrough, Bradshaw reflected on how low she had been, to the point she almost quit in 2018.
‘There were times I thought I might walk away from the sport,’ she said. ‘The injuries were tough and the pressure I put myself under. But since 2018 I’ve never thought like that. I’ve absolutely loved it.
‘I was picking up on traits I didn’t like. Someone would jump really well in America and I’d be gutted. It would hurt me, I’d feel sick to my stomach.
‘I didn’t like that in myself so wanted to change that. Any little thing that I felt like that, I researched it, spoke to my psychologist and wanted to change myself. That was really helpful to me.’
Her success takes Britain’s athletics tally to a thoroughly modest two.
The team cannot yet reflect on an even remotely successful Games, but at least Bradshaw can.